The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Orange County Engineer Clark Slacum’s monthly report on Road and Bridge to commissioners court brought attention the possibility of saving money by putting compactors at the landfill site.

“Road and Bridge has been studying the feasibility of installing waste compactors at the solid waste collection site.

Based on information supplied to me by Waste Management, using compactors will allow us to increase by a ratio of three the amount of quantity we can place in these dumpsters.” The cost of disposal of a compacted dumpster is $350, where as an uncompacted dumpster is $300.

Slacum estimates the county could save $7,000 a month.

Orange County Judge Carl Thibodeaux told Slacum to look into it further and when the numbers are finalized, bring it back to the court for approval.

In other business, Rick Masters of Carroll and Blackman, Inc., told commissioners that the post-construction controls developed to control the quality of storm water runoff into the rivers will be implemented in the next week or so.

The plan determines if new construction will require on site detention ponds or something else, such as grass ditches. Detention ponds may be required if a project has more than an acre of new impervious cover, such as: paving, area under a roof or other surfaces that do not allow storm water infiltration. “Our permit rules say that we have to insure adequate long-term operation of the ponds or control measures,” said Masters.

“It’s a good thing for Orange County in that development projects are not put in that are going for cause flooding.”

Mandatory post-construction non-structural controls must: Prevent trash and/or floatables, petroleum products and other non-storm water discharges from entering the municipal storm sewer system; Implement sweeping or other maintenance programs to minimize the discharge of sediment (dirt, sand, clay, et.) in the sewer system; and maintain vegetation in a minor to minimize erosion and sediment to the sewer system.

They are working with the Orange County Drainage District to make it a one-stop shop for contractors to get the information on new regulations.

Masters said they are coming to the end on this permit term and the next one will include the municipalities of Bridge City, Orange, West Orange and Pinehurst. “They are going to join our coalition as well, with that it is going to pretty much be a county wide initiative.”

Jeff Kelly said the Shelter of Last Resort is still on schedule and the roof system instillation should be complete by the end of the week or first of next week. Work is coming along inside the building. “There’s a lot of sheetrock work, finishing work on the floors, there’s a lot going on. It’s really taking shape inside.”

Colors for the outside of the building have yet to be chosen. Kelley said “The block on the bottom will be one color; the flat part on the top will be a lighter color.” There are two bands that will be metallic paint.

The court gave permission to fill two vacant positions in the district attorney’s office. Openings in the office are for a misdemeanor attorney and a legal secretary.

Orange County Tax Assessor-Collector Lynda Gunstream submitted the calculations of the 2012 tax rates. The effective rate is .50436 per $100 and the 2012 rollback rate is .55040. The 2012 debt rate is 0.