Tyler Mayor Martin Heines urges residents and businesses to do their part to help stop the spread of the coronavirus during a press conference at Tyler City Hall earlier this year.

Wednesday’s City Council meeting saw Mayor Martin Heines bang his gavel for the last time, with much of the 1.5 hours of discussion at Tyler City Hall spent honoring his dedication and commitment to the greater Tyler community during his prolonged tenure as mayor.

Though Heines deflected the bulk of the attention, emphasizing the benefits of collaboration and stating that nothing was made possible without the hard work and continued efforts of council members, city staff and the support of the public, he could be seen smiling wide and cracking jokes throughout.

“Mayor, I just want to say thank you for your service, for your leadership, for your mentorship,” Don Warren, who is running against Joel Rando for the upcoming mayoral vacancy, said during the meeting. “I served on City Council with you for six years and you were also instrumental in getting me on planning and zoning. I’ve learned a lot over the years. It’s just been an honor to work with you.”

Warren shared anecdotes about Heines’s mentorship, the disagreements and discussions that weren’t “always fun,” but that always resulted in learning experiences, and thanked Heines for his past while wishing him the very best in the future.

John Nix also took to the podium to express his gratitude.

“I really do want to say thank you,” Nix said. “You were a great battle buddy and I would go shoulder-to-shoulder with you on almost anything … You really fought for our citizens.”

Nix said Heines “fought off many deals” that seemed shiny and new, but that didn’t have the best interests of the Tyler public at heart.

“I know you haven’t made everybody happy over the years – we’ve all heard that in this position,” he said. “But I do think that there was never a time when we were in a situation that I even had a question that you didn’t have the citizens’ best interests, and our best interests, at heart. That is high praise.”

There were other jokes shared, about how Heines will go down “in the annals of history as the longest-serving mayor,” and, in a poem, about how “we’ve had enough,” of the mayor.

But all who spoke said that Heines had great integrity, that he was passionate about his work with the community, that he was an ideal leader and mentor.

The meeting, of course, was not devoted entirely to Heines’s honor, however.

The city council also approved a number of motions relating to zoning changes, including a car sales lot that is now planned to house a 20,000-square-foot veterinary clinic with 84 parking spaces on Old Jacksonville Highway, a 75-unit apartment complex located along the future extension of Lake Placid Road and Old Noonday, the addition of four unit-attached townhomes to an existing townhome property, and an expansion to the Donnybrook Automotive building.

Heines took advantage of the opportunity in his last city council meeting to request that future zoning presentations be made more clear for the benefit of the public, including the listing of common street names and impacted districts.

He called many of the terms that are often used during such presentations “inside baseball” and hoped that these amendments would better inform the public and council members reviewing the proposed changes, he said.

The city also approved: a change to the order of $3,729.70 to complete the Emmett Scott Park construction project, which was referred to as “the jewel of Tyler” with its quarter-mile track, remodeled bathrooms, new signage and other improvements; a grant of $82,000 to support the city’s emergency preparedness and response capabilities; and a request to apply for funding for various city drainage projects through the Texas Water Development Board Flood Infrastructure Fund.