The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Rodney Townsend and his wife, Debbie, have won their battle with the city of Port Arthur to be deannexed.

According to Townsend, the decision was finalized by the city and he was officially denannexed in February. Their home is on 340 acres on Highway 87 at the foot of the Rainbow and Veteran Memorial Bridges.

Townsend said when he purchased the property, he was not aware it was actually listed as being within the city of Port Arthur. However, he quickly found out when it was time to file the paperwork.

The Townsends, who have lived there for more than five years, also encountered other problems such as they would not be able to receive city services such as water, sewer and garbage pickup. However, they would still have to pay taxes for those services.

“Disannexation is the removal of territory from a city,” said Alan Sanders, a local attorney who petitioned the city on the Townsend’s behalf. “It’s the opposite of annexation. There are different paths to disannexation.”

Over the past few years, the Townsends made several attempts to obtain services, including a police patrol after they has a break-in. However, the Port Arthur Police Department refused to investigate it. They also don’t have fire protection or animal control, according to archives.

It has been said Port Arthur annexed the property 15 years ago because there were some legal contentions between Bridge City and Port Arthur with Port Arthur concerned Bridge City was expanding that direction.

The Townsends also made requests to the Port Arthur City Council, but according to archives, their requests were denied and their request to be put on the agenda to open up discussion was denied as well.

“My client’s financial motivation is for not paying city taxes every year for no city services,” Sanders previously said. “The Townsends have a legitimate complaint. Port Arthur has not acted in good faith. They have ignored the Townsends and not heard from their citizens.”

Townsend thinks it was a good resolution to the problem for all involved.

As far as providing the city services, “they never provided them before and still will not,” Townsend said.

Which is perfectly fine with Townsend who has his own well for water and septic system for sewage. He is also OK with taking his garbage to the local dump.