Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 509
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...
Orange County election finals were in before 9 Tuesday night with the Vidor school bond issue passing locally. Donald Trump was leading in early national returns and enough returns in Texas were in for media to call a victory for incumbent Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, against Democrat Colin Allred. The Orange County Elections office under the direction of Donna Alford reported the county has 56,515 registered voters with 36,450 voting for 64.5 percent. Of those votes,...
The feel good event of the year is coming up this weekend, Saturday, November 9, as the annual Special Angels Rodeo is set to start at 10 a.m. at the T2 Arena, 3810 Old Peveto Road. The Special Angels Rodeo provides "a fully adaptive rodeo experience for our Special Needs Community." Special Needs children and adults come from throughout the region to participate in a fun day of rodeo, including riding a mechanical bull. But the activities are not restricted to those with...
After a report from County Emergency Management Director Joel Ardoin, County Judge John Gothia said he would lift the burn ban because of recent rains. However, people were still cautioned about outside burning with the high winds and vegetation that is still on the dry side. The bad news, though, is the county may be getting a bit too much rain this week as Tropical Storm Rafael is predicted to go into the Gulf of Mexico. The system could affect Southeast Texas, but Ardoin...
Lamar State College Orange will have the grand opening its new Academic Building on Green Avenue at 2 p.m. Wednesday, November 6. The $38 million building in downtown Orange has 55,000 square feet and includes the latest in technology. Eight classrooms, two computer labs, and student commons areas are included in the building, along with offices for faculty and information technology. LSCO President Dr. Tom Johnson will preside over the event. Money for the campus expansion...
Even though the 2024 presidential race is the center election for interested people around the world, Orange County is having local races on the ballot for Election Day, Tuesday November 5. The Orangefield school board has a trustee election, plus the Vidor ISD has a $98.4 million bond issue on the ballots with the money designated for renovations and new buildings. Also, two county emergency services districts will have elections for members to their governing boards of...
The city of West Orange is set once again to lead into the Thanksgiving-Christmas season spirit with the 24th Annual Holiday in the Park festival on Saturday, November 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is at Alford-Seale Plaza on Western Avenue and has free admission and free parking. Holiday in the Park is also having its Second Annual Car show with owners of vintage cars showing off their prized vehicles. Free entertainment will be provided by local performers throughout...
Downtown Orange will be alive with spooks, ghouls, and aliens on Halloween as the historic Orange Train Depot has a haunted house and groups will be handing out candy to young costumed trick-or-treaters. The Orange Train Depot, built in the early 1900s as the station for the Southern Pacific Railroad, was restored ten years ago. For the second year, the Drama Department at West Orange-Stark High School is decorating the building into a haunted house. Drama teacher Mason...
I'm a writer of stories with the ones appearing on news sites as true. This one has truth in it, but I cannot verify the main premise. And that's because there's no scientific proof of ghosts. Does the ghost of a young relative killed at the age of five in a car-train wreck at the Park Avenue crossing in 1918 remain at the house of my great-grandparents in the Old Orange Historic District? The child was the son of my grandmother's sister, Zollie Bland Roan, and her husband, Wr...
All the voting machines in Orange County have been calibrated and tested before being put out to the public. Plus, the machines are not connected to any internet server or wifi connection to allow hacking. Orange County Elections Administrator Donna Alford made these assurances late Tuesday as accusations flew on a political Facebook page. The unverified comments drew so much attention that Precinct 2 County Commissioner Chris Sowell issued a Facebook statement reminding...
The burn ban for Orange County is extended until further notice of the county judge as the county continues to be in a drought with windy conditions and grass fires breaking out. Commissioners Court Tuesday voted to extend the burn ban previously called by County Judge John Gothia. He said Orange County was the first to declare a burn ban in this area, but other counties have joined in. Other business included awarding a construction contract for the new Public Health...
The ghostly people from Orange's past will come out to the downtown area Saturday as Heritage House Museum presents its Eighth Annual Historic Ghost Walk. Family-friendly walks will be from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., and "night fright" walks will be from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. The event to teach true stories and facts from Orange's history has become the museum's main fundraiser. High school drama students dress in costumes from different periods and tell true history researched and written...
