Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 572
Planning and design work is moving along steadily for the Orange County end of the federal Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay Coastal Storm Risk Management Project. The United States Army Corps of Engineers, Orange County and the Orange County Drainage District will host three public outreach meetings in late April to show their work. The first meeting is set for Saturday, April 23 at the Bridge City Community Center. Additional meetings will be held on Thursday, April 28 at the Ora...
Members of the Orange Lions Club young and old, with help from neighboring Lions and Orange County Jail trusties, created a beehive of activity at Lions Den Park the last couple of weekends. They're all getting ready to open the 81st Annual Lions Club Charity Carnival for two four-day weeks beginning March 30. "We're glad to be able to open back up after the pandemic. I know the citizens of Orange missed it," Grover Roberts III, carnival co-chairman, said. It will run from...
Like volunteer firemen extinguishing a structure fire, the state of Texas doused the first-ever Orange County Emergency Services Districts directors' election. It was set to be held May 7 along with city, school and county commission elections. But Texas Secretary of State John B. Scott said no. It will have to wait for November 8. "The Secretary of State told us that under Election Code 41001, a county cannot order an election in May of an even-numbered year," Orange County...
The Early Voting location for the May 7 city and school board elections in the southern end of Orange County will be the Bridge City ISD Administration Building, 1031 W. Roundbunch Road in Bridge City. As has been the case for many years, the county has offered four early voting sites and any county resident may vote at any of those sites. However, those waiting to vote on the official Election Day must cast their ballot at the polling box listed on a person’s voter r...
Don Reese said he retired as Bridge City's transportation director a couple of years ago because, "I got tired of trying to keep bus drivers." Then the retiree took a part-time job – as a Bridge City school bus driver. "They needed some help," Reese explained. "It fits my retirement." School districts all over the country are facing bus driver shortages. On the same day Reese was interviewed, West Orange-Cove school district issued a release saying the district had 10 bus d...
The most improved Orange County football team is getting an improved homefield. Little Cypress-Mauriceville school board members voted to approve $5 million in athletic facility improvements that include an artificial turf playing field, a new seven-lane track and new restrooms for the home side of Battlin' Bear Stadium. A project schedule prepared for trustees shows that the football field will be ready in August, in time for the 2022 football season. Eric Peevey, LCM's...
Nelson Plaisance trailered the 23-foot eyesore from his yard in the Cove to the Collection Station at the Orange County Landfill Saturday afternoon. It was time to let 'er go and the Vessel Turn In Program being run by the Texas General Land Office at the FM 1442 location was the perfect opportunity to say goodbye to the boat that wouldn't even run to his mailbox for 15 years or more. "A friend of mine must have seen it in the paper and I found out from his post on Facebook....
Experience walked in Orange County Precinct 3 and money talked in Orange County Precinct 2. Joy Dubose-Simonton won her third term as Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Tuesday night, squeaking past paralegal Candice Conroy Steele, a two-time challenger. In the other contested Orange County race, Chris Sowell was not just the top vote-getter in a five-man race for the County Commissioner job representing Precinct 2. He avoided a run-off with an overwhelming 59.7 percent of the...
In the last half of 2021, Dade Phelan, Orange County's State representative, raised $1.5 million in campaign funds and spent about every penny of it on campaign expenses. But the Beaumont-based Republican has no one running against him in 2022. Talk about money for nothing. But don't pine for Phelan, who hasn't had an opponent since 2014, the first of his now five elections to the Statehouse. He is still sitting on nearly $5 million in political contributions, according to...
The City of Orange is saying goodbye to its top two firefighters in the next six weeks and plans are being made to find their replacements. David Frenzel announced last year he is retiring near the end of April after 53 years with the Orange Fire Department, the last 25 as Fire Chief. Deputy Fire Chief Lee Anne Brown announced last week she plans to retire next week after 30 years at OFD. "Everybody says you'll know when it's time, and I knew it was time," she said. "I prayed...
The previous occupant's University of Texas Longhorns golf bag has been replaced by a Texas A&M diploma belonging to a man who used to be a golf pro. Brent Walker's course to being the new city manager for the City of Bridge City has been full of doglegs and tricky reads. But the Panhandle native who grew up on the grasslands beneath Kansas' Flint Hills, thinks he has found his sweet spot in Southeast Texas. "I've really been looking for a place to call home and I like...
The Orange County Elections Administration has returned about 100 mail-in ballots to would-be voters in the past week because of missing or mismatched identification numbers. The good news, according to Cheryl Bradley, Assistant Elections Administrator, is there's plenty of time to make the correction and have your vote counted in the March 1 election. The problems could be as simple as voters not knowing that an ID number is required on the ballot return envelope. "What I'm...
As early voting wraps up for the March 1 primary for November's midterm elections, the final lineup for the May 7 city and school boards are set. Lanie Brown, a familiar name in Orange County politics as Regional Director of Community Relations for U.S. Congressman Brian Babin, is running for one of three at-large spots on the West Orange City Council. Kenneth Prosperie and his wife Peggy Prosperie, a couple of civic activists, are on a ballot apiece in Bridge City. Kenneth is...
So what's different about the Bridge City school bond issue coming up on the May 7 election? Twice in the past eight years, BCISD taxpayers shot down bond issues, voting no by more than a 2-1 margin. One difference, said Dr. Mike Kelly, the district's first-year superintendent, is that the tax hit will be less. "The 2019 proposed bond was going to raise taxes 27 cents. The 2022 bond proposed bond, if both propositions pass, will raise taxes 21 cents. So we're actually asking...
Orange County Commissioners approved the Texas Statewide Opioid Settlement Agreement Tuesday, which means about a million dollars this year for the county. It is expected to hit the county's account in six to nine months, County Judge John Gothia said. Commissioners have also agreed upon how they wish to spend about $9.5 million of government funds coming from the American Rescue Plan Act put forth by President Joe Biden and passed by Democratic Congressmen in 2021. ARPA is a...
Early voting begins at 8 a.m. Monday, Feb. 14 for the 2022 Primary election that will determine who's on the Nov. 8 midterm election. Early voting runs from Feb. 14-25 with varying hours (see below) and no voting on Feb. 21, President's Day. Voters may vote in either the Republican or Democrat Party primary, but only one. They may vote in any of the county's four early voting locations, but those waiting to vote until March 1, must do so at the voting location that matches...
J.W. Dalton, the self-proclaimed "Mayor of Mauriceville," has made it rain for Mauriceville native Chris Sowell. The $10,500 donated to Sowell's campaign for Orange County Precinct 2 Commission by Dalton, both as an individual and through his business, Top Deck, is considerably more than the other four candidates had combined to raise a month before the March 1 Republican Primary election. In all, Sowell, president of the Mauriceville Heritage Association, reported raising $15...
Orange County and the Orange County Economic Development Corporation, in partnership with the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission and Connected Nation Texas, is deploying an initiative to expand and improve broadband access, adoption, and use throughout Orange County. This broadband initiative will be for the benefit of local residents and businesses. The partnership will work with Connected Nation Texas and their "Connected" program to assess the present state of...
Mardi Gras, celebrating the Christian feasts leading up to the season of fasting for Lent, dates back to medieval Europe and was carried to North America by French explorers in the 1700s. A century later, New Orleans was holding parades of carts and horseback riders. Two more centuries and Orange, Texas' Mardi Gras on the Sabine is also carrying on traditions of the past. Only, in this case it will be the 1970s. The 18th Annual Mardi Gras Weekend Feb. 18-19 kicks off at 6:30...
Cutline: Terri Gauthier of Bridge City, right, swears in as President of the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission during its annual banquet at the Beaumont Event Center. Orange County Judge John Gothia read the oath of office to the new office-holders. Terri Gauthier likes to stay busy and the owner of Bridge City's Total Impressions spa and health club is doing it on a bigger scale. The six-year member of Bridge City's city council was recently sworn in as President...
As the niece of longtime Pinehurst leader John Zerko, Sarah McClendon says it's her time to take the lead. McClendon, Pinehurst's Mayor Pro-Tem and winding up her third two-year term as a Pinehurst city council member, is running to become the city's first female mayor. Johnny Asevedo, a first-year council member, is her opponent in the May 7 election for cities, schools and special districts. The deadline to file to run in the election is Feb. 18. "We've got a wonderful...
Chili by Shaun McConnell, left, was both the judge's and people's champ at Saturday's Chili Cook-off in Orange. Mark Frey of Columbanus Motorsports, joined by his store's yet-to-be-named fox mascot, said the event raised several hundred dollars for United Way of Orange....
The five men seeking to be the next Orange County Commissioner for Precinct 2 agreed their widespread slice of the county needs better representation. In last Friday's Candidate Forum at Little Cypress Intermediate School, they agreed drainage, roads, economic development and equity are concerns for a huge precinct that stretches from the eastern edges of Vidor through the Orangefield school district north to the Jasper and Newton County lines. And they all have experience...
For all they do for the community, the Bridge City Chamber of Commerce recognized Melissa Isaacs as Citizen of the Year and CASA of Sabine Neches Region Business of the Year at its 61st Annual Banquet Monday night. The Chamber numbers 179 business members, including 13 new members signed up in 2021, said 2021 Board President Rani Dillow. The Ministerial Alliance works with 20 area churches to serve as a central agency to provide assistance with food, utilities, rent,...
The night she was elected as Orange mayor in 1998, Essie Bellfield won by fewer than 100 votes. But she figured she deserved 100 percent of the ballots cast. “I think everyone came (to vote) because of me,” she said. “I’m female. And I’m Black. “They came out to vote for me … and they came out to vote against me. Everyone was a beneficiary.” Bellfield passed away Sunday, Jan. 23 at age 89. She was Orange’s first and still only female mayor and she was the first African-Ame...
