Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 437
Orange County Commissioners Court got received an update from the Chevron-Phillips Golden Triangle Polymers plant with reporting of nearly $241 million being spent locally by the company and its contractors for construction of the $8.5 billion petrochemical plant on Highway 87 South. Company representative Heather Betancourth told commissioners that in the fourth quarter of 2023, which ended December 31, the company had spent a total of $79.9 million locally. Of that, $42.7...
The West Orange-Cove school district will have a $72 million bond issue on the May 4 election for city councils, school boards, and special districts. However, the only contested races will be for Bridge City mayor and for directors of the Orange County Drainage District. The cities of Orange, West Orange, Pinehurst, and Vidor are able to cancel council elections because of no contested races. In addition, the Bridge City and WO-C school boards, along with the port district,...
The Boomtown Film and Music Festival Friday and Saturday, February 23-24, in Beaumont may be on the west banks of the Neches River, but it has a strong showing from Orange County. The festival's director Penny LeLeux, a local film maker, is from Orangefield. Special guest Dolores Cantu is a West Orange High graduate and will talk about her 50-year career in Hollywood as an actress and agent. She will also appear at a showing of "Saturday Night Fever" to talk about her role in...
If you've got it, flaunt it. And Dr. Tom Johnson, president of Lamar State College, loves to flaunt the campus and programs the school offers. "The thing that I'm most excited about is our graduation rate," he said. That rate includes students earning a certificate, rather than a two-year degree. "Come in and get a low-cost certificate, then get a job, and then come and get an associate's degree," he said. Besides the percentage of students graduating through programs, he...
The first day of early voting for party primary elections drew 938 people to the polls, with 877 votes in the Republican primary and 61 in the Democratic primary. The only local races for Orange County are in the Republican Party with contested races for sheriff, Precinct 2 Constable, Precinct 4 Constable, and county party chair. Also drawing interest from around the country is the Republican race for Texas House of Representatives District 21. Incumbent Dade Phelan, who has s...
Lamar State College Orange and the Stark Foundation are assuring local residents preserve the past while preparing for the future. On Tuesday, under a clear crystal blue sky, the local college had a groundbreaking ceremony outside the old First Baptist Church building on Green Avenue in downtown Orange. "We want to preserve this beautiful building, said LSCO President Dr. Tom Johnson. PDG Architects of Houston has designed a modern style interior to serve as the new Student Su...
Three challengers to incumbent Sheriff Jimmy Lane Mooney said they want to improve relationships between the Orange County Sheriff's Office and other agencies. Mooney said he stands on his work of the past three years, which includes negotiating a new contract with deputies and getting them pay raises. The four appeared in a question and answer forum last week that was sponsored by the Orange County Republican Party. All four are running in the March 4 party primary with no De...
Amateur radio operators in the region will be gathering Saturday, February 24, at the Orange County Expo Center and the public is invited to attend to learn more about the radio operators who talk with others around the world. And sometimes, out of the world. Mike Manshack of Orange, one of the organizers, said amateur radio operators are able to speak with astronauts in the International Space Station as it passes over them. The event will be from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on...
The three Republican candidates for Precinct 2 constable touted their long experience in law enforcement as reasons voters should elect them in the March 4 primary races. The candidates, incumbent Jeremiah Gunter and challengers David C. Bailey and Harold Hass, are running for the Republican nomination. Because no Democrats are running for local offices, the winner of the primary will run unopposed in the November general election. Last week, the Orange County Republican...
Orange County Commissioners Court has declared February as Southeast Texas Workforce Month and the county's economic development director said there's reason to celebrate. Megan Romero Layne, the EDC director, told the court just this month, the county added 80 new healthcare jobs with the opening of Christus Hospital-Orange. The EDC in Orange County currenting has $12.5 billion in construction and planning projects, with another $73 billion in construction and planning for...
More than 20 years ago, Betty Harmon began putting into motion an idea from the late Carolyn Hogan for Orange to have a Mardi Gras celebration. "I never thought it would grow to this magnitude," Harmon said as the city gets ready for three days of events with the 20th anniversary of the first parade. The celebrations will start Thursday evening with a free concert at the Riverside Pavilion and culminate Saturday evening with the grand parade through downtown Orange. Before...
Orange County voters will get a chance Thursday to meet and hear the three candidates running for Precinct 2 constable. Then next week, the the four Republican candidates will be featured in a forum. The forums are sponsored by the Orange County Republican Party for three of the four local contested races. Because the Democratic Party has no local candidates, the winners of the Republican primary races will run unopposed in the November General Election. On Thursday, February...
Philanthropist Gisela Houseman and Dr. Marty Rutledge took the center of attention Tuesday afternoon as the helped cut the ribbon for Orange's first hospital in seven years. The two were crucial in getting the new, 24-hour hospital built and operating on what is now called the Gisela Houseman Medical Campus, which includes a professional building. Dr. Rutledge is an Orange native with a longtime general family medical practice here. The 55,000 square foot hospital is operated...
Mardi Gras on the Sabine has become more than one parade. Now, there's free live music, food trucks, kids games, a munchkin parade, of course the grand parade. Starting with a free rock concert Thursday evening and going through Saturday night, Orange is ready to celebrate. This year the events will include a tribute to Kevin Smith, recently named to the College Football Hall of Fame. Smith, a native of Orange and graduate of West Orange-Stark High School, was a football star...
Dolores Cantu got a job at the old Strand movie theater in the 1960s when she was 14 years old. At the time, she could only dream she would one day be on the big screen. She ended up on the big screen and TV screens for decades and has gone down in film history as the only woman who ever beat up John Travolta in a movie. It was the classic "Saturday Night Fever." Cantu, a 1968 graduate of the old West Orange High School, will be returning home to be featured at the Boomtown...
The city of Orange is beginning a new year cleaning house, or at least dilapidated houses and buildings. As the city continues to give out Economic Development Corporation grants for new businesses and construction, the city is also tearing down eyesores, including another section of Sabine Park Apartments, which were originally Gilmer Homes built in the early 1940s for World War II. City Planning Director Kelvin Knauf said a the city council a few years ago agreed to spend mo...
Orange County Commissioners Court Tuesday approved the plans for another RV park on Texas Highway 62 south of Interstate 10. The approval for Shadee RV near Dempsey Drive is the first park to come under the county's new regulations. With an influx of construction workers moving to the area because of new and expanding industrial plants, more RV parks are being developed around the county. Last year, Commissioners Court added some additional rules to assure the RV parks in...
Cedric Stout of Bridge City, one of the country's last survivors of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, died Wednesday at the age of 102. This past December, the U.S. Navy reported only 25 living survivors of the attack were left. The December 7, 1941, Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific fleet in Hawaii was described by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as "a day that will live in infamy" when he asked Congress for a declaration of war. Stout had his 20th birthday a month...
Bridges and overpasses closed Monday evening as freezing rain slicked roadways, leading to a number of vehicle crashes and schools being canceled for Tuesday. Most of Texas is suffering under a strong arctic front that hit Orange County on Monday with strong winds sending windchills into the teens. The low at the Orange County Airport reached 23 degrees overnight, with a low of 19 forecast for Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service. And even though Thursday...
Everybody knew him as Stump, a nickname Stump Weatherford had in childhood. But for Lions Club International, he was also known "National Treasure." Butch Campbell recalls giving the "National Treasure" name to Weatherford a few years ago at the Lions Camp for youth with disabilities. "Everybody laughed at it, but they knew it was true," Campbell said. "He wasn't just a local treasure, he was a national treasure." L.E. "Stump" Weatherford died last week at the age of 77 after...
The city of Orange is starting the new year with a big drop in sales tax payments as Pinehurst, West Orange, and Vidor have healthy increases. Sometimes with the city of Orange's drops, the percentage changes could be with the Texas Comptroller's Office which collects all sales taxes from businesses. The office sends entities their shares after keeping the state's share. Often, the state office mistakenly sends sales taxes from Pinehurst and West Orange to the city of Orange...
Bridge City has a new city manager and he's guaranteed to stay at least two years. Last week, the Bridge City City Council voted unanimously to hire Christopher Baker, who grew up in the Mobile Bay, Alabama, area as the city manager. He has a master's degrees in business administration along with another master's in city and regional planning. "We're very pleased with our selection. We think he's a great fit for us," Mayor David Rutledge said. The city went nearly a year...
Former West Orange-Stark Mustang Kevin Smith, who went on to star for Texas A&M and the Dallas Cowboys was named Monday to the 2024 College Football Hall of Fame. The College Football Hall of Fame has a museum in Atlanta, Georgia. The inductees announced Monday include 19 players who earned first team All-American honors, along with three college coaches. They will be honored at an awards banquet set for Las Vegas in December this year. He is also in the Texas A&M 12th Man Hal...
Orange County will be celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King this week with an annual gala Saturday night at the Expo Center and a traditional march in downtown Orange on Monday. The Orange NAACP is once again sponsoring the march, as it did the first one here on January 20, 1986, when the day became a national holiday. This year, the march, which is open to the community, will begin at 10 a.m. at Salem United Methodist Church, 402 West John Avenue. The marchers will begin...
National company building $6 million in new houses in Orange More than $6 million in new houses in Orange's Reserve at Mallard Lake subdivision are in the construction phase, according to city building permits. In December, the city issued 25 permits to D.R. Horton, a national homebuilding and developing corporation based in Arlington, Texas. The new houses are being built in a newly-developed area off Allie Payne Road in the Little Cypress-Mauriceville school district. The pe...
