Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Sorted by date Results 176 - 200 of 484
Bridge City Mayor David Rutledge has a holiday wish. He wants the city to have a new city manager on the job by the beginning of the new year. He said the city council is negotiating a contract with a candidate after personal interviews and visits with three finalists for the position. "I'd sure like to get the person in place to start the new year," the mayor said. He did not reveal the candidate's name, but according to the Texas Open Meetings Act, the council must make the...
The Orange City Council did something it hasn't done in at least 20 years. The members met with the Orange Historic Preservation Commission, a branch of city government with members appointed by the city council. Mayor Larry Spears Jr. said the rules set out for the creation of the Historic Preservation Commission and the Old Orange Historic District has a requirement that the city council meet once a year with the preservation commission. At one point during the Monday...
Orangefield school students will be getting new classrooms plus a new high school library and cafeteria as voters Tuesday approved the school district to sell $43 million in bonds to pay for the improvements. Other local propositions on the ballot also passed. They were a voter approved tax rate increase for the Little Cypress-Mauriceville CISD, and in the city of West Orange, a sales tax to establish a city economic development corporation. In recent years, early voting usual...
People driving between Bridge City and Orange next week will get another major inconvenience for the sake of economic growth. The new Chevron Phillips chemical plant construction is forcing traffic lane closings along State Highway 87. The $8.5 billion plant is under construction on 2,000 acres with frontage along Highway 87 between FM 1006 and Foreman Road. The plant is a project by Chevron Phillips and Qatar Energy and will be moving giant modules to the new site. The...
Bond has been set at $150,000 for a 56-year-old man charged with terroristic threats against public officials. Barry Lee Bates, who lives in the Little Cypress area, was arrested Monday afternoon. The threats came on Facebook social media with writings of bombs and shootings against people including the president of LSCO Orange, the Orange County Judge, a retired Jefferson County Judge, and a retired superintendent of the Little Cypress-Mauriceville school district. Monday...
Orange's Thrift and Gift Shop, a non-profit group that helps senior citizens, will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this week with a special sale on Saturday, November 4, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The store, which is now at 350 37th Street in the former Salk Elementary School, began in downtown Orange half a century ago. It was developed as a place where senior citizens could have a place to sell their handmade crafts and goods to earn extra income to supplement their...
The Thanksgiving-Christmas season comes alive again in West Orange Saturday as the city hosts its annual Holiday in the Park festival featuring arts and crafts, foods, live entertainment, and a vintage car show. The free event opens at 9 a.m. and will run until 5 p.m. at Alford-Seale Plaza next to city hall on Western Avenue. Last year, a vintage car show and contest was added and owners of cars may enter their vehicles without a fee. Holiday in the Park has become a place...
Early voting has been slow for the November 7 election that includes three local entities asking for voter approval on different issues the Orangefield school district, the Little Cypress-Mauriceville school district, and the city of West Orange. The ballot includes 14 Texas Constitutional Amendment propositions, including Proposition 9 to give a cost of living raise to retired teachers, who do not have COLA payments and most cannot collect Social Security, even for a...
As the county has been celebrating getting its biggest new industrial facility since World War II, two corporations announced they were closing their long-operating Orange plants. The two together could bring a loss of 500 or more jobs. That number would be close to the number of permanent jobs created by the $8.5 billion ChevronPhillips Golden Triangle Polymers petrochemical plant under construction here. ChevronPhillips officials estimate 4,500 jobs related to construction...
Sales taxes remained strong across the county for August, even though the month had a tax-free weekend for certain school supplies and clothing. The city of Orange has skyrocketing increases in sales taxes that may be attributed to a city effort to attract more businesses to locate there by offering city economic development grants. The city of West Orange in the November general election is asking its voters to approve a 1/4 percent sales tax to use for the same economic deve...
Paper manufacturing is a local industry older than the petrochemical plants and the closing of the last paper mill in Orange is an end to a long history tied to the lumber industry. The first paper mill in Orange, known to the current generations as Equitable Bag, lasted 100 years. Last week, International Paper announced it will be closing its containerboard pulp plant north of Orange off State Highway 87. The plant was built in 1967. International Paper also reported it...
More than half a century ago, the Orange Chamber of Commerce reached out to officials at the old Lamar Tech to see if the college could open "extension" classes in Orange. Those leaders back in 1969 would have never predicted that the campus they started now is starting its own "extension" college in another town. On Wednesday, October 18, Lamar State College Orange will have a grand opening of a new campus in Lumberton. A ribbon-cutting and open house at 3 p.m. will...
Informational meetings on the $43 million bond election r the Orangefield school district will be held on Thursday, October 19, and Tuesday, October 24. Early voting on the bond issue will start Monday, October 23. Election Day is Tuesday, November 7. The informational meetings are for parents, taxpayers, and the general public interested in the schools. The meetings will be held each evening at 6 in the high school cafeteria, 10058 FM 105. The meetings will have...
Voters in the city of West Orange will decide whether their city will have a special economic development corporation to draw more businesses. The city will have a special sales tax on the November ballot with early voting to start on Monday, October 23. West Orange has a proposal to add a fraction-of-a-penny per dollar sales tax and use the proceeds to establish a City of West Orange Economic Development Corporation. Mayor Randy Branch said the proposed tax rate of...
The Orange County Jail once again passed a surprise inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, but Jail Captain James Eiselstein said the commission said the county needs to deal with the rust in the complex. Captain Eiselstein presented Orange County Commissioners Court with the full report and said the recent inspection was made in person. Because of staff cutbacks at the commission, the previous inspection was based on records sent to the commission. The Orange C...
In October 1886, bodies were found floating in Sabine Lake and the Sabine River. Though local volunteers recovered many of the bodies, the bones of the victims of the disaster were found in the marshes for years. The story of the bodies, along with other local stories of murder and scandal will be part of the Seventh Annual Historic Ghost Walk through downtown on Saturday October 14. The event is held by Heritage House Museum, which was founded in 1976 to preserve the history...
Orange County could be in a national political spotlight as its state representative, Dade Phelan, who serves as Texas speaker of the house, is becoming enbroiled in what is being described as an "intensifying civil war" within the state GOP. At the end of September, the Texas Republican Party called on Phelan to resign. Also, the Orange County Republican Party censured Phelan for his work with Democrats to impeach State Attorney General Ken Paxton. David Covey of...
The Bridge City ISD Education Foundation is seeking sponsors and players for the second annual golf tournament fundraiser to be held Saturday, October 28, at Babe Zaharias Golf Course in Port Arthur. The non-profit education foundation was started by Bridge City alumni to raise money for special grants to teachers in the district for items and projects not covered by the regular school budgets. This year, the Bridge City High School classes of 1966, 1970, and 1980 are...
Donna Peterson, an 88-year-old trailblazing businesswoman from Orange, was one of two women honored last week by the Better Business Bureau Education Foundation's first Distinguished Women of Southeast Texas award. She was presented the award during an expo and conference at Ford Park arena in Beaumont, with speakers including Jefferson County Sheriff Zena Stephens and Elyse Thibodeaux of Bridge City's Tiger Rock Martial Arts, who presented a demonstration on self-defense....
It's going to be a gourd-geous weekend at the Orange Riverfront Pavilion with days of activities, music, and food during the Third Annual Orangetober Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And in preparation for the festival, Dow Chemical and the Orange County United Way are hosting another Together Thursday on October 5. The free outdoor concert will feature the group Straight Tequila Night playing 1990s country music. The concert will start at 6:30 p.m. at the covered Riverfront...
The Texas Department of Transportation is closing some lanes of the Interstate 10 access road, a move that will make people living north of the interstate in the eastern part of the county happy. TxDOT is tearing down the low bridges across Adams Bayou on the east and west access roads. Property owners and local government officials have wanted the bridges down because they interfere with the flow of rain water southward to the Sabine River. Adams Bayou drains areas as far...
Kids and families can learn how the real-life heroes work and live when the Orange Fire Department and the National Fire Protection Association will host the annual Fire Prevention Month open house on Monday evening with free activities, games, and food for families. The open house will be at Central Station from 5 to 7 p.m. on Monday, October 9. The station is at 501 North Seventh Street of Green Avenue in the Old Orange Historic District. A bounce house will be set up for...
Jayson and Liz McKee, plus their blended family of four children, will receive the 2023 Library Family of the Year award during a ceremony and reception at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, October 7, at the Orange Public Library. The annual award is sponsored by the Orange Chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) based on recommendations from the library staff. The award pays tribute each year to a family that likes to check out books and take advantage of other...
A building site that once drew fame to Orange with a local family business, is now housing a school and training center to produce more famous mechanical and technical-minded innovators. On Wednesday afternoon, Lamar State College Orange will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the community at the new Electromechanical Technology Building. LSCO President Dr. Tom Johnson is adding more subjects to train regional residents to get jobs in area industries. Students will be able to...
Two decades ago, voters in the city of Orange approved adding a half-cent per dollar sales tax for economic development to help boost businesses to town. The longterm effort appears to be paying off. The city's income from sales taxes is up nearly 32 percent for the first nine months of the year with a total of $7.31 million so far compared to $5.55 million for the same period last year. The city's sales taxes for the month of July were up nearly 79 percent from July 2022,...
