Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 522
Orange County Judge John Gothia told Commissioners Court about a magical spring evening at the Governor's Mansion in Austin as a county-operated disaster rebuild group won an award at the 40th annual state tribute to volunteers. He said First Lady Cecelia Abbott was gracious and friendly to the honored guests and even let her dogs out, all four of them. He recalled one, a puppy about a year and a half old, jumping on the first lady and she pushed it away, "like anyone with a...
The former Jones Elementary School on Fourteenth Street in Orange was sold by the WO-C school district. It served as a church and was then abandoned. The current WO-C Superintendent, Dr. Rickie Harris, announced that if voters approve a bond for a new early learning center, the old North school will not be left vacant. The West Orange-Cove school district superintendent had good news for Orange residents concerned about the construction of a new North Early Learning Center....
Finding a handy place to park is advised for the weekend as families may want to be traveling the county for activities. Crawfish will be celebrated in Mauriceville, drag boat races with food and music will be at the Orange Boat Ramp, and Depot Day will be held at the historic train depot in downtown Orange. The annual Mauriceville Crawfish Bash, the oldest continuing festival in Orange County, will kick off on Friday evening and run through Saturday night. This year, 17...
The chief executive officer of Chevron Phillips along with a senior official from QatarEnergy will speak Wednesday, May 1, at a special ribbon-cutting ceremony at Lamar State College Orange. The college is opening its new hands-on training lab at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Industrial Technology Building, 409 Fourth Street. Golden Triangle Polymers donated $1.3 million to help establish the new facility, which will be used for LSCO courses teaching chemical processing courses....
Ten years ago, the century-old Southern Pacific Railroad station was long abandoned. Weeds grew a foot high and white paint was peeling off the sides of the brick. Then came former Orange resident Carrie Woliver of Houston, who remembered her grandparents living by the train depot and named her memoir "The Train Stopped in Orange." She started a non-profit group to purchase and restore the train depot-station, which is now an official Texas Historical site. Saturday, May 4, th...
The Elvis and Marilyn sculptures are still standing in the storefront window on Tenth Street at Main in downtown Orange. Maybe if you look closely, they are shedding tears, too, like many real people across Orange County. Local business icon Harry Stephens, who owned Harry's Appliances for 61 years died on Sunday at the age of 82. He was the epitome of a small-town business owner who offered old-fashioned personal service and advocated for supporting all local businesses. Roy...
Glenda Dyer, an educated chemist who developed an affinity for the ink of newspapers, including nearly every paper in Orange County, died at her family farm in Tennessee, where she had moved nearly 20 years ago with her husband, Paul. Her newspaper career began in the 1970s when the now-deceased editor of the Orange Leader gave her a job. She went on to become the first woman editor of the Leader in 1998. In the 1980s, she owned, published and edited her own weekly paper, The...
Sales taxes for the largest entities were down for the month of February, but Bridge City, Vidor, and Pinehurst had increases. Orange County, which has a 0.5 percent sales tax, collected $482,265 for the month, a drop of nearly $103,000, or a decrease of 17.56 percent from February 2023. The county is slightly down for sales tax collections for the year to date, collecting $2.46 million for the first four months of the year, a drop of about $30,000, or a decrease of 1.45...
Most cities and school districts in Orange County were able to cancel their May 4 elections because of no contested races, but the races and issues on ballots are drawing out voters. The current election is not the same as the May 28 Republican primary run-off for state representative. As of Tuesday evening, the second day of early voting, A total of 326 people in the county voted in person, with another 238 from mail-in ballots for a total of 564. The votes casts at the four...
The OneStar Foundation, the official non-profit for the state, has announced that the Orange County Disaster Rebuild is one of the recipients of the Governor's Volunteer Awards. The group is one of 11 individuals and organizations receiving the award. It was cited under the category of the Rebuild Texas Disaster Impact Award. The awards were announced by Texas First Lady Cecelia Abbott. Orange County Commissioners created the disaster rebuild group in May 2018, months after Hu...
Events in Texas 188 years ago moved quickly toward Texas becoming an independent nation, and what is now Orange County had a prominent role. One resident signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and another fought at the battle of San Jacinto. The Battle of San Jacinto anniversary is marked every April 21. The short, 18-minute battle led by General Sam Houston, led to the surrender of the Mexican president and leader Santa Anna. Soon, prisoner Santa Anna was led to the...
A mother-daughter road trip to follow the sun and the solar eclipse turned into a discovery of longtime family history in Orange County. We are descendants of the Pevoto, Bland, and Harmon families, original settlers. My daughter, Kate Robards, a writer and performer in New York City, flew in to travel with me to see the total eclipse. We invited ourselves to stay with my paternal cousin Judith Garrett Segura and her husband, Avelino, at their home in Lantana, a community in...
The Salvation Army of Orange County is once again looking for food donations to stock their pantry so local individuals and families can get help so they are not hungry. Board President Katie Durio said businesses and clubs are welcomed to hold food drives to help. Individual donations are also needed and may be taken to the local Salvation Army at 1950 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Orange. The office opens weekday mornings at 9 a.m. Foods donated should not be past their...
Precinct 1 Commissioner Johnny Trahan warned boaters to be on the lookout for logs and other debris washing down the Sabine River after flooding last week in Newton and Jasper counties, north of Orange. The flooding has also led to the Sabine River Authority opening flood gates at Toledo Bend Reservoir as the level got above the legal maximum. Trahan said he was called last week to Texas Highway 12 in Deweyville north of his precinct to look at the log jam at the Sabine River...
Sometimes in life, a person ends up where they were meant to be. Krispen Walker is one of those people. The West Orange-Stark High graduate on January 1 will become the new district attorney for Orange County, replacing John Kimbrough, who is retiring after 32 years. She will be the first woman district attorney in county history. Being a criminal prosecutor had not been in her original plans. She took a job with a private law firm after graduating from law school, taking on...
Coach H.N. "Moe" Litton, who worked more 30 years for Bridge City High School as a coach and athletic trainer, is legendary in the thoughts of his former students. His family keeps his legacy alive by supporting a college scholarship each year to a graduating Bridge City senior. The H.N. Litton Scholarship Golf Tournament is the annual fundraiser for the scholarship and this year it will be April 27 at Babe Zaharias Golf Course. The deadline to register is April 13. The...
Orange County Sheriff's deputies will be getting a pay raise thanks to a rural law enforcement grant of $500,000. Commissioners Court Tuesday voted to accept the grant from the Texas State Comptroller's Office. County Judge John Gothia said Sheriff Jimmy Lane Mooney decided to use the money to divide between the 114 eligible employees in his office. The county is supposed to get another $500,000 grant again next year. Precinct 2 Commissioner Chris Sowell said the grant is "to...
Light up Saturday, September 14, on the calendars because the Bridge City Chamber of Commerce hopes to illuminate the dark that night with a hot air balloon festival. Chamber Director Mandy Lyda said plans have not been finished, yet, but the event is set for that date at the Bridge City Elementary-Intermediate school area off West Roundbunch Road. The event will allow the public to see hot air balloons lit and glowing in the night. The festival will include vendors with arts...
West Orange officials want residents to take advantage of the city's annual spring cleanup by taking their cast-off furniture, appliances, and other items to the free dumpster service on Friday and Saturday. Mayor Randy Branch said the cleanup event is part of the city council's on-going effort to removed trash and improve the appearance of neighborhoods. The city is sponsoring the event with the dumpsters being set up behind the West Orange Volunteer Fire Department, on...
Orange County saw strong sales in January, leading to a 16.5 percent sales tax payment this year, compared to last year. The state comptroller's office in March sent the sales tax payments to the entities with the monthly returns covering January. The year-to-date collections includes the amount of money sent for the calendar year. The county has a half-cent per dollar sales tax that was approved by voters to off-set some of the property taxes. For January this year, the...
Perfect spring weather is in the forecast for the Easter holidays this week, and once again the city of Orange is expecting hundreds of children and their families for the annual Easter Egg Hunt on Good Friday. The free hunt and activities will be at the Riverside Pavilion at the City Boat Ramp off Simmons Drive. Gates will be open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the egg hunt will start promptly at 10 a.m. Children ages 11 and younger should bring baskets to collect the candy eggs. The...
Orange County's most famous landmark is set to get its first facelift in nearly 30 years and the project will require a major traffic change. The Rainbow Bridge will be getting "extensive maintenance" beginning in the late summer or early fall, the Texas Department of Transportation has announced. Traffic on the bridge from Bridge City to Port Arthur will be closed during the project, which is estimated to take 18 months. During that time, the Veterans Memorial Bridge, which...
The West Orange-Cove school district has plans to build a new North Early Learning Center near the elementary school if voters in May approve a $72 million bond proposal. The bulk of the bond money will go toward building the new school to replace the current one on Cordrey Avenue in Orange that was built in 1964. The school district has already acquired 27 acres of land behind West Orange-Stark Elementary School on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Pinehurst. The elementary...
The Bridge City City Council is asking for the Texas Department of Transportation to redesign a traffic detour at the Rainbow Bridge when the landmark will be closed for maintenance later this year. The council in the letter says a plan to install "S" turns for diverting Rainbow Bridge traffic on and off the Veterans Bridge "will lead to an unnecessary and totally avoidable potential for accidents and traffic congestion." TxDOT's plans call for closing the Rainbow Bridge and t...
Codie Vasquez and Halee Watkins from the regional CASA accepted a proclamation from Orange County Commissioners Court declaring April as Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month. The group for volunteers to help abused children go through the legal system during the process to separate them from abusive family, has its regional offices in Orange. County sets free junk boat turn-in for April Orange County's free vessel turn-in program to take in junked boats is set this year...
