Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 484
Anyone who talked to Van Jordan for a while went away feeling like they had been life-long friends, that's the kind of man he was, said J.W. Dalton. Jordan was a Christian minister, military veteran, and led the area motorcycle HOG, Harley-Davidson Owners Group. Jordan died last week at his Port Arthur home at the age of 56. In addition to being a motorcycle enthusiast, he owned a construction company in Port Arthur and was a minister. Dalton, who owns Top Deck in Mauriceville...
Like hundreds of girls across Texas during football season, Aamiyah Gradnigo walked the field in an evening gown for homecoming ceremonies. But instead of being escorted by her father, she walked arm-in-arm with a uniformed police officer. She asked Orange Police Sergeant Jason Laughlin to walk with her because of their close relationship that developed when he was the lead investigator into the home-break-in murder of her older sister and the sister's boyfriend. "I was just...
For the first time in five years, Orange County will be starting a new budget year with a surplus. County Judge John Gothia said no recent disasters and reimbursement payments from FEMA have created the financial success. Orange County Commissioners Court unanimously approved the 2022-23 budget of $52.7 million. This year the county will begin the new fiscal year October 1 with $8.3 million in reserves. The savings will allow the county to buy new equipment that had been...
A two-state search is being conducted for 48-year-old Michelle Reynolds of Alvin, a former Orange resident with relatives here. Her husband reported her missing this weekend to the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office after she disappeared on Thursday, September 22. She told her husband she was going to get something to eat. During the weekend, her gray Lexus RX 300 was traced to a parking garage in New Orleans, nearly 400 miles away. New Orleans police have also been trying to...
Dr. Mike Kelly has a rare chance this school year to learn new skills and find out what other public school districts are doing in Texas, three other states and Puerto Rico. The superintendent for the Bridge City ISD was chosen this year for the Thompson Executive Leadership Institution through the Region 13 Education Service Center in Austin. The leadership program uses references to invite school leaders to apply for the program, but not everyone invited to apply is chosen....
West Orange-Stark High is celebrating homecoming this week with activities including a parade and community pep rally on Wednesday, September 28. The homecoming game on Friday will be against Liberty with kickoff at 7:30 p.m. The Wednesday evening parade will begin at 6 p.m. at West Orange City Hall on Western Avenue. The parade will then travel westbound on Western and then turn south on Newton Avenue. The parade will end at the high school football stadium with the...
Orange County voters will have local elections during the November 8 general election as a new state law requires the members of the boards for special emergency services districts to be elected instead of appointed. Orange County has four emergency services districts. In the past, Orange County Commissioners Court has appointed the members of the boards for the districts. The Emergency Services District in Orange County provide fire and rescue service. Some of them have paid...
Drivers traveling in the Waterwood subdivision outside of Bridge City will need to pay attention to the intersections soon. Orange County will be installing stop signs at five of the intersections. In addition, a stop sign will be going up in the Wexford Park subdivision outside of Vidor at the intersection of Waterford Way and Leitrum Drive. Orange County Commissioners Court Tuesday unanimously approved the new stop signs after conducting a public hearing on them before the...
The Orange County Sheriff's Drug Interdiction Unit on Interstate 10 scored again by stopping an Italian vehicle that deputies said had 99 pounds of pot in plastic totes and suitcases. According to a press release from the Sheriff's Office, the drug interdiction on September 15 stopped a 2019 Alfa Romeo on "several traffic violations." The release did not say where the stop was made or the time of the stop. The release said the Drug Interdiction Unit detectives saw marijuana...
People in the city of West Orange will have a small monthly increase in their garbage collection fees passed on the the city's contractor. The fees are going up for home and business pickup. For residential fees, the new cost for one cart will be $23.25 a month, up from $22.16 a month. Houses with two carts will be paying $35.05 a month, up from $33.96 a month. Commercial customers with carts will pay $43.25 a month for one cart, upfrom $42.16 a month. Commercial users with...
Residents in the city of Orange will see higher bills when they open their monthly water-sewer-garbage statements starting in October. The city will have a 3 percent increase in water and sewer rates, plus garbage contractor Waste Management will increase its rates 10 percent. Property owners in the city have a slight decrease for their tax rate for the new fiscal year, but they might pay more based on whether their property appraisals went up. An increase in property...
The Orangefield school district's November school board election was able to be canceled because all three positions scheduled for election have candidates running unopposed. Orangefield is the only public school district in Orange County not within an incorporated city and has its board of trustees elections at the same time as the November general elections. The other districts have board elections in May at the same time as city elections. Marc Wernig, currently serving as...
Sales taxes remained strong across Orange County during July, but some entities were not collecting enough to keep up with the increase in consumer prices. The cities of Pinehurst and Vidor had decreases in collections compared to last year. Orange County was the only entity with a sales tax that had above the July 2022 Consumer Price Index. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put the consumer price index for July 2022 at 8.5 percent more than the CPI for July 2021. The Texas...
The 1937 Orange County Courthouse now has a wheelchair lift at the backdoor, County Maintenance Director Kurt Guidry told Commissioners Court Tuesday during a regular meeting. Guidry said the lift was needed because of recent changes at the courthouse, which houses judicial courts, the district attorney's office, plus other county offices. The front of the courthouse has been blocked off for several years because of problems with the marble facade staying in place. Two wings o...
The Texas Department of Transportation has completed the construction of sidewalks along MacArthur Drive and has installed two overhanging caution lights for pedestrian crossings. The project included adding street lights along the sides of the seven-lane roadway that is part of Texas Highway 87. TxDOT spokeswoman Sarah Dupre said contractors and Entergy are working to run electrical lines so the lighting can be turned on. People in Orange, along with city officials, worked wi...
One of Orange's little-known football players has gained more fame in recent years as "Ox" Emerson is being credited for creating the wishbone formation and being one of pro football's greatest guards in the 1930s. The Football Hall of Fame named the guard to its 1930s All-Decade Team in 2020, but a lot of followers, including a Sports Illustrated columnist, argued he should have made the All-Centennnial Team. Emerson played eight seasons in the NFL and made first team...
The Orange County Special Angels Rodeo is having its annual Fish Fry fundraiser Thursday, September 22, at 6 p.m. at the Orange County Convention and Expo Center on FM 1442. Single tickets are $50 each. The event includes a fried fish dinner, live entertainment, and silent auction. Money raised for the event helps sponsor the Special Angels Rodeo for people with of all ages with disabilities. The Special Angels group provides a day's outing with adaptive rodeo events for the...
Commercial and residential construction projects in the city of Orange during August stayed strong with building permits including a $350,000 remodeling project at the Waffle House on Texas Highway 62. Pine Woods Sanitation, however, led the way in city building permits during August with a permit for a $450,000 new building at 2004 DuPont Drive. The company provides garbage pickup across the region and has contracts with some Orange County cities. In addition, the national ho...
Air conditioners churned all summer to keep people cool, at least until their electric bills arrived. Gasoline prices soared during the summer. And grocery stores weekly raised prices on staples and all kinds of foods. As people have been hit with inflation, they have cut back on their giving as they are paying more for the cost of living. Plus inflation coming after the Covid pandemic has edged more families and individuals into food insecurity. The food shelves in homes and...
A 12-year-old Vidor girl was killed Sunday night in an accident in which she was driving an off-road side-by-side utility vehicle. Three passengers on the vehicle were injured. Vidor police attributed the accident to the girl going to fast, losing control, and running off the roadway. Vidor police said the girl is Kaylee Woodward, a student at Vidor Junior High. Counselors at the school were helping students with their grief on Tuesday morning after the Labor Day holiday....
The professionals are returning to Orange to show us their big basses. The Bassmaster Elite schedule for 2023 has the anglers returning to the Orange Boat Ramp June 1-4 to fish the Sabine River. It will be the fifth time in 10 years the professional tour has come to Orange. In April 2021, the tournament and Sabine River Festival here drew 41,000 during four days. Orange has set Bassmaster attendance records, or come close to breaking other ones, ever since the first one was...
Orange County Commissioners Court Tuesday approved three new stop signs, one in Victory Gardens and two in Little Cypress, and started the process to get more stop signs. Also, the court approved steps for two more subdivisions of land into lots in Precinct 3. The stop signs are being installed in an effort to slow vehicular traffic. The county must advertise the intent to install a stop sign and then conduct a public hearing before voting on whether to approve the sign. A...
Jerrod Lee Watkins, 25, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of intoxication manslaughter in connection with the June 2020 deaths of two people in separate crashes. He agreed to serve two terms of 20 years each. Intoxication manslaughter carries the punishment of two to 20 years in state prison. Watkins admitted he killed bicyclist Robert Jackson, 45, of Bridge City, and then Jillian Blanchard, 20, of Groves. Watkins was set to go on trial for one of the manslaughter cases on...
Sales tax incomes were mixed in June for the Orange County entities getting the tax, according to figures from the Texas Comptroller's Office. The revenues from June were sent to the entities in August. The city of Bridge City had a strong showing of sales tax returns compared to the same time last year. However, the increase in tax income for the city did not offset the national inflation rate. For June, the national inflation rate was 9.1 percent, a 40-year high. The...
Orange County Commissioners Court Tuesday approved a new property tax rate with a small decrease in the rate. However, tax payments may go up for many people because of an increase in property values. The new rate will be 53 cents per $100 valuation, changed from the current rate of 54 cents per $100 valuation. A house valued at $100,000 with the county's 20 percent homestead exemption will pay based on an $80,000 valuation. Under the new rate, the homeowner would pay about $4...
