Texas State Rep. Lance Gooden bid the Cedar Creek Lake Area Chamber of Commerce farewell at the Nov. 13 luncheon.

Gooden referred to the chamber as a "good friend" during his speech. The legislator served two terms representing the Cedar Creek Lake area in the Texas Legislature.

Gooden said he made many new friends during his campaigns and work at the Capitol.

"The best benefit of this is the people you meet along the way," Gooden said.

He named Jimmy Ragsdale of Ragsdale Real Estate, who sponsored the luncheon and sat at Gooden's table, as one of the friends he met. "He is one of the people I would never have met if I had not knocked on his door to campaign," Gooden said.

Gooden's successor, Dr. Stuart Spitzer, attended the luncheon, and Gooden said he and his staff would work with the new legislator and his staff to ease the transition. "We've worked to make everything as smoothe as possible."

Spitzer, who joined the chamber recently, said he would work to continue the projects Gooden had started on behalf of the Cedar Creek Lake area. "I will continue with what Mr. Gooden has done so well," Spitzer said.

Gooden said funding for the new bridge to be constructed on Highway 334 between Gun Barrel City and Seven Points would be included in the budget now being completed for January 2015. Work should begin on the bridge within another year, and it will be the complete restructuring and widening of the current bridge in both directions, he said.

Gooden said he has gone to work for an accounting firm in Dallas, and that he looks forward to a slower pace. "It will be kind of nice to go home every day and sleep in my own bed," he said. "It will be nice to have just one job."

Chamber President JoAnn Hanstrom praised Gooden. "He did some really good things for us during his two terms," she said.

Pictured below are Gooden, Hanstrom and Spitzer and Gooden and Ragsdale.