State Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, announced his plans to retire and did not seek re-election. He talked with The Daily News about his career in the House, which began in 1994. The following are Q&A excerpts: Q: What committee assignments were you involved with? A: “I want to be on the Education Appropriation subcommittee so I can take care of UTMB and A&M Galveston.” Q: You had a long career. What was the high point? A: The 2009 session had to be the high point of my career. Hurricane Ike hit in September 2008 and almost immediately we had to start fighting to keep UTMB on the Island and get a commitment to rebuild it. Q: Were there other highlights? A: Briefly, two that come to mind were when Patty Gray and I amended a bill on the House floor right after lunch when everyone wasn’t back at their desk, sending all $40 million to UTMB for uncompensated charity care from unclaimed lottery prize money. That was a pretty good drive-by appropriation. It got whittled down over the years but was good while it lasted. Another time Mike Winburn, the director of MHMR, and I created a 20-bed psychiatric hospital out of thin air. Literally, we put a rider in the budget that said, “Out of funds appropriated above create a 20 bed psychiatric hospital at UTMB in Galveston.” And it worked for years. At least until Ike