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KAZ’S KORNER

Outdoors HUNTING & FISHING

SPORTS COMMENTARY

Capt. Chuck Uzzle Page 3 Section B

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RELIGION & LOCAL CHURCH GUIDE Page 6B

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County Record TheRecordLive.com

Vol. 60 No. 44

Week of Wednesday, April 8, 2020

The Community Newspaper of Orange, Texas

New restaurants roll with punches The Boardwalk Grille, a couple of years into its startup on Fifth Street in downtown Orange, has extended its days and hours of operation to 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and is meeting the demand for to-go dining and deliveries. “Honestly, it’s hit or miss,”

owner Lacey Lemoine said. “Every day is different. You kind of roll with it.” High Tides was open for nine days at the foot of the Texas 87 Cow Bayou bridge before local restaurants were told to close their dining. “That first week after the Grand Opening, we got beat up pretty badly,” owner Wes-

ley Dishon said, meaning his staff was nearly overwhelmed by the crowds. “Even with 77 employees, we were swamped. We were probably pushing 250 people.” Dishon’s restaurant was offering live music three nights a week with open-air dining downstairs and air-

conditioned comfort upstairs. Now, it is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Even with the switch to carry-out dining, he said, “we’re exceeding our expectations, so far.” SEE RESTAURANTS Page 3A

Seniors await ‘play ball!’ call Wesley Dishon says his family’s High Tides restaurant on Cow Bayou is staying busy with carryout orders of food and drinks during a ban on in-store dining caused by the coronavirus. He said he’s considering adding on to the double-decker eatery that opened about a month ago. RECORD PHOTO: Dave Rogers

DAVE ROGERS For The Record

Innovation and adaptation are the marching orders of the “new normal” in 2020. A couple of Orange County restaurants are making them work, even with restaurants being closed to all but takeout dining by govern-

ment orders designed to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The brand-spanking-new High Tides restaurant in Bridge City has not laid off any of its 77 employees and owner Wesley Dishon is talking about adding on to his double-decker dockside eatery.

Remote learning transition smooth at LSCO DAVE ROGERS For The Record

Thanks to a ton of bad weather in recent years (think hurricanes and tropical storms), students and faculty at Lamar State College Orange are no strangers to challenging educational experiences. But with the campus closed until at least the end of May by state and national health protocols, the only face-to-face talks students are having with their teachers are via the internet on computer screens. “I would much rather be face-to-face with my students, but what we have is close,” says Dal Moreau, a practicing psychologist who has taught psychology at LSCO for 11 years. The campus is using Blackboard, an educational software system that has been adopted by 75 percent of all U.S. colleges and universities and quite a few public school systems as well. Blackboard Collaborate is a program much like Zoom that allows for live-time video chats. “If we had to have another way to do it, this is a great one,” Moreau said. “Blackboard is a great platform for that.” Amy Moore, public information director at LSCO, reported Tuesday that the transition the school made from on-campus teaching to

online has been smooth. “Remote education is going pretty well,” she said. “Because of all the storms, most of the faculty is used to teaching online. All the faculty able to work online are doing their classes remotely and pretty much have not skipped a beat. “Classes like art and hands-on workforce classes are not able to meet. We’re not able to let those students on campus right now. The plan is to let them finish when we can safely allow them on campus.” Henry Ramsey, a fourthyear process technology instructor, is one teacher who was familiar with online teaching. But he is glad the decision was made to give LSCO teachers the week after spring break to expand their toolbox. “I use Blackboard and I had gone through training on Collaborate before this,” Ramsey said. “With this happening, they offered a lot more training on how to use it, how to get out information. It changes the testing, going from a closed-book, in-front-of-you situation to a take-home, open-book. “They gave us help on setting it up. Even now, ‘Who needs a headset? A webcam? Who needs a computer?’” Not all pf Ramsey’s students have the internet. SEE REMOTE Page 3A

DAVE ROGERS For The Record

The COVID-19 viral pandemic has made the spring of 2020 one that no one will forget. Meanwhile, the baseball players at Bridge City still haven’t given up their hopes of making vastly different memories. Coach Chad Landry’s Cardinals were 15-0-1 and ranked No. 1 in the state’s Class 4A ranks when the University of Interscholastic League ordered a halt to Texas high school sports March 19 as the new coronavirus began to spread across the United States. Unlike college sports, which put a permanent end to spring sports for 2020, the UIL has so far refused to wipe out the 2020 spring sports championship chase. Texas’ governing body for school competition said in its latest (April 3) release, it is “further modifying contingency plans based on schools reopening May 4.” “We’re just like everybody else, just biding our time,” Landry said. The wait and uncertainty is a tiresome and nervous process. “I can only mow the baseball and softball outfields so many times,” he said. UIL rules do not allow him to work with his players. Players can’t even hold their own small-group workouts, he said. “You have to be 18 to be out of your house and you

Bridge City head baseball coach Chad Landry meets with his state ranked Cardinals on the mound during the final game of the Jasper Tournament against Nederland on March 14. Big Red pounded Nederland 8-3. It would be the final game for the playoff bound Bridge City. RECORD PHOTO: Mark Dunn

can’t be with anybody else that’s not 18,” Landry said, speaking of the Stay-atHome, Stay Safe emergency orders in force in Orange County and much of the country. “Honestly, I think there’s a lot of dads finding the old gloves. The kids are playing catch with their dads.

“We had a kid send us video of his dad hitting him ground balls in the front yard.” The UIL allows coaches to send instructions for workouts to their players, but Landry doesn’t see the need. “Basically, we’ve just been kind of leaving it up to our

own guys,” he said. “We trust that they’ll get their work in. “Mainly I’m just communicating with our guys, touching base to see how they’re doing, staying in touch with everybody.” Bridge City’s team has SEE SENIORS WAIT Page 3A

OC breaks down its COVID-19 results DAVE ROGERS For The Record

Orange County’s Office of Emergency Management debuted on its Facebook page Tuesday a new grid to better pinpoint areas of testing and confirmed cases of COVID-19. Among the many squabbles on the ever-shifting battlefield that has been local, state and federal decrees regarding the new coronavirus has been one of geographics. There are varying readings of the Heath Insurance Por-

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tability and Accountability Act, which regulates the privacy of individuals’ medical information. Exactly where does the public’s right to know bump into a person’s right to privacy? So far, public health agencies have erred on the side of caution, meaning Southeast Texans have received only general geographic information about people who been tested and confirmed to have COVID-19. That has led to a lot of questions.

But Orange County Judge John Gothia said Tuesday Orange County and presumably the six-county Southeast Texas Regional Emergency Operations Center, will begin to more narrowly define the residence of those with confirmed cases. Tuesday’s solution? After the SETREO listed eight Orange County jurisdictions with confirmed cases Sunday, the same agency listed only four OC jurisdictions with confirmed cases Monday. Tuesday, 11 geographic ar-

eas inside the county were listed. Tuesday’s list includes 31 positive tests for the county, including seven in Vidor, six in “Orange area,” four each in “Orangefield area” and “Pine Forest area,” two each in “Bridge City area,” “Little Cypress area” and “Mauriceville area” and one each in “Forest Heights area,” “Lakeview area,” “McLewis area” and West Orange. “We’re trying to break it down as tight as possible,” COVID-19 Page 3A

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