Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
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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...
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...
Fourteen years ago, a grave marker carved with a Fender guitar was placed at the grave site of Grammy-winning singer and musician Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, who is buried in Orange's Hollywood Cemetery. But flood waters continually damaged the marker, which included his quote engraved "I won't limit myself to one type of music. There's a lot of universe out there, and what is the universe? Music." Now, a fan and family friend has started an online fundraiser for money for a...
Everyone has heard of the El Nino and La Nina weather patterns. The new pattern is "El Carnivale." It's guaranteed to bring on rain. That's the latest joke from the Orange Lions Club as the community crosses its fingers for good weather during the last four days of this year's charity carnival. But yikes. Rain is in the forecast. The 83rd annual Lions Charity Carnival in Orange will open this Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Lions Park in Orange. For years, the...
Will it or won't it rain? That is the question these days any time the Lions Club Carnival is ready to open. The 83rd annual event with rides, food, games, and lots of local volunteers is set to open on Wednesday, March 14, and run Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Then it will begin again on Wednesday, March 21, and that week's Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Right now the National Weather Service in Lake Charles is forecasting some rain later in the week, however the bulk of...
In the Gilded Age, Green Avenue in Orange was lined with mansions and grand houses. The biggest and most elaborate of the mansions was built by J.W. Link, a lawyer who owned a lumber mill. Link also served as mayor of Orange, but a few years later, moved to Houston, where he became a major land developer and founded the Montrose subdivision. His mansion in Houston, similar to his one in Orange, still stands today and serves as administrative offices for St. Thomas University...
The battle for Texas House of Representatives District 21 is now in a runoff and will depend on how many people get out and vote in the Republican primary runoff on May 28. According to the Orange County Elections Administration, the county has 54,871 voters and a little more than 41,000 did not cast a ballot in last week's primary race. Of those voting, 12,834 voted in the Republican primary and only 981 in the Democratic primary. Anyone who did not vote in a primary race...
Retired Texas Ranger Bobby Smith pulled an unusual political win by beating incumbent Sheriff Jimmy Lane Mooney and two others in the Republican primary with a margin wide enough that no runoff will be needed. Also, in a race drawing national attention, David Covey of Mauriceville had a large margin over Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelen for the District 21 state representative. However, the fraction of votes for Alicia Davis of Jasper County appear to have thrown the...
Quilts have long been a way for women to display artistic skills, but do not expect to see any of the "quilts" at the Stark Museum of Art on a bed. These quilts were mean to be hung and displayed as they show the history of African-Americans in the West. The museum now has on display the first of its kind showing of quilting artists who have made simple "paintings" to collages of materials to tell history stories. The exhibit is Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West. Sta...
The Orange Police Department on Monday, March 4, issued a warning to people not to fall for a scam phone call from someone claiming to be with the department. Detective Stephen Ward in a release said the caller was claiming to be "Sergeant Chuck Steele with Orange PD" with an "urgent legal matter." The recipient was to contact 409-420-3458. That is not a phone number connected to Orange police or any other local law enforcement agency. This is the latest in a number of phone...
As wildfires blazed across the Texas Panhandle region Monday afternoon, Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties and warned that parts of East Texas also had an increased danger of wildfires. During the weekend, a few scattered wildfires were reported in Orange and Jasper counties, though they were able to be contained without spreading far. The Panhandle fires by Tuesday afternoon had consumed more than 250,000 acres and were not under control....
Tuesday, March 5, is primary Election Day in Texas with a local Republican race drawing national attention with a fiercely fought race for the Orange County state representative’s seat. Incumbent representative Dade Phelan, who serves a speaker of the Texas House of Representatives is being challenged by David Covey. Phelan led the house’s successful impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for accusations of misdoings. The Texas Senate did not impeach him. Covey, a f...
