Incumbent John Nix has put in the long hours and done the due diligence necessary to be a truly engaged and effective member of the Tyler City Council. For this reason, he has earned the endorsement of the Tyler Paper for re-election.

Nix, 37, has served in the seat since 2013. He is the owner of Nix Properties, the managing owner of Hospitality House and the vice president of Nix Construction.

He’s being challenged by Clark Hampe Jr., 36, an attorney and partner in Hampe & Iglesias PLLC, a Tyler-based law firm.

Two of the key areas where the candidates differ is in Hampe’s proposal to impose a new tax on developers to raise revenues, and in his support for an increase in law enforcement, without clarity on where the money would come from.

Nix’s dedication and commitment to the community is evident.

He has served on Tyler’s Planning and Zoning Commission, Leadership Tyler’s Board of Directors, the city’s Construction Board of Adjustments, Tyler Area Builders Association, chairman of the Government Relations Committee, the Developers Roundtable and the Council Audit Committee.

Throughout his years of service, he has been a solid addition to each board and commission he served on, known for doing his homework and remaining accessible.

Nix’s focus on the Council has largely been on roads.

“We are continuing to see failures in our roads that we are not able to address as rapidly as we need to,” he said. “We have a lot of things that played into that – the last two years have been wet after a drought. It’s been horrible for our roads. I feel good about where we are going, but I feel like we have further to go.”

Largely because of Nix’s involvement, the city has increased its budget to seal coat roads, which can help extend the life of a road surface. This fiscal year, the city plans to spend $450,000 on the program.

Some big issues are facing the city in coming months, and Nix is best prepared to help deal with them.

One is an ongoing drainage problem in some parts of the city. Mayor Martin Heines has said the city must deal with those now – because drainage problems soon become road base problems, which then become pothole and other road surface problems.

Nix fully supports Heines’ efforts, and as a builder he’s uniquely suited to keeping an eye on how future development can affect drainage and storm-water runoff.

Another issue facing the city is its aging water and wastewater infrastructure. In some of the older parts of Tyler, water and sewer lines are approaching 100 years old. Before there’s a crisis of any kind, city leaders must formulate a forward-looking plan to gradually replace and upgrade those lines.

It’s easy to spend money on the visible items – the things many of us see each day, like roads and parks – but it requires real leadership to focus on the unseen things, such as sewer pipes.

For these reasons, we urge voters to re-elect John Nix.