Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 520
Orange County Health Services announced Tuesday the county has its first confirmed case of pertussis, also known as whooping cough. The respiratory illness is particularly dangerous for infants and babies. The news comes after Hardin County reported 11 cases in December and the Texas Department of State Health Services, which tracks the cases, reported three times as many cases in November 2024 to November 2023. The illness is caused by a bacterium in the respiratory system...
The economy is booming in Orange as the city council has approved three new economic development grants, including a new apartment complex. Also, the city will be spending a half-million dollars on improvements to the Riverside Pavilion and Boat Ramp area. The money for the improvements to the recreational area will come from the city's Hotel Occupancy Tax paid by people who stay in local hotels and motels. The city's public works department reports the Pavilion and Boat Ramp...
Orange County will be commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 20, with a traditional march and activities. Also, some local public offices will be closed, along with federal and state offices. The Orange County Courthouse will be closed as will city offices in Orange and Pinehurst. All non-emergency employees in the county, and for Orange and Pinehurst will have the day off, though law enforcement and fire protection will be on regular duty. Regular...
City of West Orange voters may be getting a chance this year to vote on whether to double the years in a term of city council members. The West Orange City Council is considering whether to call a city charter change election to expand each term for mayor and six councilors to increase from two years to four years. The city council under Mayor Randy Branch on Monday discussed the positive and negative effects that changing the length of terms would have. However, the council...
From his third-floor office, LSCO President Dr. Tom Johnson's can see new buildings that weren't there when he came to the job nearly seven years ago. And those buildings are one of the reasons he has decided to retire in August. "When I got here, I had a ten-year plan in place and I've accomplished all of them (the goals), he said. He said he wants to travel and see more of the world. "I'll be 63 next month and my wife, Karen and I would like to travel when we're still...
Filings will open for local city council and school board positions on Wednesday, January 15. Some of the spots open this year will be for West Orange mayor, currently held by Randy Branch. Interested and qualified people running for offices in the May 3 elections may file during regular weekday business hours until Friday, February 14. City council filings are taken in the city secretary's office at the appropriate city hall. School board trustees will file in the offices of...
Krispen Walker, Bobby Smith, Rodney Townsend, and Joey Jacobs will become new county officials on January 1 when they take their oaths of office. In addition, several incumbent officials will take oaths for new terms. All the local officials ran as unopposed Republicans in the November general election. The public is invited to join with the officials' friends and families to witness each person getting a new term take the oath. The ceremony will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Janua...
The Orange County Courthouse, along with city halls, plus federal and state offices will be closed Wednesday for New Year's Day. All emergency services like police and fire will operate as usual. Though the county courthouse offices are closed, the main courthouse will be open to allow officials to take part in the oath of office ceremony at 10 a.m. in the 128th District courtroom. Garbage pickups will not be made on Wednesday in any of the cities. The cities of Bridge City,...
Sales tax payments to the cities, Orange County, and one special district left the county and Bridge City with year-end increases from 2023, however, the city of Orange was down $2 million in sales tax revenues. Orange County collected $520,000 more during the calendar year, with Bridge City getting $160,000 more. The city of West Orange had $25,000 more, while Pinehurst collected $42,500 more for the year. Vidor received $30,000 more for the year. Orange County Emergency...
Back in 1904, 120 years ago, Orange "city fathers" were asking "Santa Claus Congress" to push ahead to get a deep water port by the next Christmas. They wanted dredging. On December 23, 1904, a 28-page special holiday edition of the Orange Leader, Citizen-Record Consolidated featured information on business and industries, plus lots of advertising for downtown stores, and fiction stories and poems about Christmas. Orange was the only city in Orange County at the time, though c...
Residents in the cities of Orange, Bridge City, and West Orange will no garbage pickups on Christmas and New Year's Day, and then will have day-late pickups. Pinehurst has regular garbage pickup on Tuesdays and residents will not have a change. With Christmas and New Year's Day falling on Wednesdays this year, the garbage customers in Bridge City and Orange that have pickups on Wednesday, will then have trucks running their routes on Thursday. Then the Thurday routes will be...
Bridge City will start the new year with a new city manager plus an effort to assist businesses or local residents who want an election to allow liquor by the drink in restaurants. Mayor David Rutledge said the Bridge City City Council hired Bart Bartkowiak from the city of Beaumont to be the new city manager. Bartkowiak is the public works director for the city. Mayor Rutledge said Bartkowiak has spent 19 years with Beaumont in different city administration positions...
The holiday festivities are continuing this week with activities as the kids are out of school for the holidays. Shangri La Botanical Gardens will continue the lighted Christmas strolls on Wednesday, December 18; Thursday, December 19; Friday, December 20; and Saturday, December 21. The hours are between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Admission is free, though donations of non-perishable foods are being collected for Orange Christian Services. The botanical gardens are lined with lights...
Beginning Monday, January 6, Pinehurst City Hall will be open only four days a week, but with extended working hours during the four days. The hours will be 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Pinehurst City Council made the decision after a request from City Administrator Jerry Hood. The hours will affect people working in city hall offices along with the public works department. However, public works employees will be on call for emergencies, as usual. Also, the police department will...
Forty years ago, a young University of Houston Law School graduate and new member of the Texas Bar moved to Orange for his first job as a lawyer. He felt he was lucky to get a job as an assistant district attorney at a time when the county had some of the highest pay in the state for that position in a small town. His plan was to learn to prosecute misdemeanors and then felonies and do the work for maybe three years. Then, he was moving back to San Antonio to defend those...
For decades, Orange County has contracted with the local cities and public school districts to provide the county's Road and Bridge Department to repair streets and parking lots. Now, county commissioners court is trying to come up with a contract that will be the same for all the entities. As individual contracts with the entities have come up for renewal recently, commissioners said they wanted to review the contracts. Usually for the school districts, the work involves...
Little Kendria Love couldn't wait. When Santa and Mrs. Claus rode up to West Orange City Hall in a red fire truck, the youngster ran to hug them. It was all part of the traditional Christmas tree lighting ceremony and community celebration held Monday evening. Mayor Randy Branch had the honor of lighting the tree as Emerald Salter sparkled in a star sweater for the occasion. Judge Carl Thibodeaux went inside to read A Cajun Night Before Christmas with Evie and Hanna Garcia...
The Vidor Police Department has become the first agency in Southeast Texas to be awarded the Law Enforcement Accreditation through the Texas Police Chiefs Association. VPD Chief Rod Carroll said the department began the accreditation process in May 2021 to meet some 182 best business practices required by the program. It too nearly three and a half years before they learned they had met the criteria for the voluntary accreditation. Chief Carroll said the Texas Police Chiefs...
Mauriceville celebrates on Thursday The Mauriceville Heritage Association will have their annual Christmas Tree Lighting Thursday, December 5, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Community Center, 7441 Cohenour Road. The free event is open to the public and includes a vendor market, holiday shopping, live music, photos with Santa Clause, plus hot chocolate and cookies. A rain-out date has been set for Thursday, December 12, at 6 p.m. at the Community Center. More information is...
Trump's popularity increases here, mail-in down Orange County loves Donald J. Trump as he racked up 83 percent of the votes cast in here in the latest election. For his first run in 2016, he was at only 79 percent of the vote here and went up to 81 percent in 2020. County information shows a big drop in the number of mail-in votes from 2020 coming after Trump and many of his followers complained of election problems and centered on mail-in ballots. No court in dozens of legal...
Nearly 4,500 people are now working at the site for the new $8.5 billion Golden Triangle Polymers plant on Highway 87 South. The Heather Betancourth with the company told Orange County Commissioners Court that on Tuesday during a quarterly report on local hiring and purchases. The Chevron/Phillips/Qatar Energy project was officially announced two years ago. The county spent a few years negotiating a tax abatement contract for the plant. The contract included the corporation...
The city of Orange continues to see big drops in sales tax returns while other cities, plus the county, are seeing sales tax increases for the year. The Texas Comptroller has sent the sales tax payments to the entities, which mainly use the sales tax incomes for general operations. Orange County has a half cent per dollar sales tax and is up for the calendar year, receiving a total of $7.73 million compared to $7.5 million for the same time last year. That's an increase of...
Christmas activities will be getting in full swing after Thanksgiving with West Orange kicking the season off on Monday, December 2, plus Bridge City and Orange having parades on Saturday, December 7. Bridge City will also be having Christmas in the Park and the community tree lighting the evening of Friday, December 6, from 6 to 9 p.m. Christmas in the Park is sponsored by the city of Bridge City at the park off West Roundbunch Road. Openings are still available for food...
West Orange is sprucing up for the holiday season with the Fall Clean-Up on Saturday, November 16. Residents of the city may take items like old furniture, appliances, and yard wastes to a site for disposal from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Plus, volunteers will be picking up litter from 8 a.m. to noon. The disposal site will be by the West Orange Fire Department on Austin Street behind city hall. Only residents of the city will be allowed to use the disposal service. Proof of residency a...
The city of Orange is down $2 million in sales tax revenues through the first eight months of the year, adding to another deficit because of industrial loses. The Texas Comptrollers Office reports that the city collected $596,552 for August, a decrease of 21.1 percent from August of 2023, plus the city had collected $6 million for calendar 2024, compared to $8 million for the same period in 2023. The sales tax income is used as part of the city's general fund that pays for gen...
