Pennyrecord issue 70115 copy

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OC Commissioners pass Scofflaw Program

David Ball For e Record

Residents best pay up any outstanding fines and fees if they want to renew their vehicle registration. e Orange County Commissioners Court approved implementing the Texas Scofflaw Program at their regular meeting on the afternoon of June 29. e program allows a county tax assessor-collector to reject the renewal of a vehicle registration from a customer who has outstanding fines and fees. e tax office will be with the four Justice of the Peace courts in the collection of these offenses. Lynda Gunstream, Orange County tax assessor-collector, said the program goes into effect on August 1. e commissioners also ap-

proved increasing life insurance benefits for active employees and eligible retired employees. Minnie Hightower, Human Resource director, said active currently have employees $15,000 in life insurance benefits and eligible retirees have $5,000 in life insurance benefits. e court approved raising those amounts to $20,000 and $10,000 respectively. County Judge Brint Carlton estimated it would cost the county $4,000 to make the transition. e pay matrix was adjusted for an environmental health and code compliance employee with more than 15 years of experience to be paid at that level. Joel Ardoin with the department said the employee has 23 years experience in another

Finley murder still unsolved No arrest 13 years later

Debbie Schamber For e Record Dannarriah Finley would have been 17 on her birthday July 22, but her life was taken from her when she was just 4 years old. Orange County still mourns the loss of a little girl who was taken from her home on July 4, 2002. Her lifeless body found four days later near the water’s edge in a remote part of Pleasure Island in Port Arthur. All that remains of the young girl’s life is memories and a few belongings. Her gravesite marks the place where her tiny body was buried. Among the pine needles is a faded photo of her during happier times and some tattered, sun-bleached artificial flowers . e house where she once lived was destroyed in 2005 during Hurricane Rita when a tree fell through it. Since then the city of Orange has removed the remains of the place she once called home. As the nation was preparing to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, Dannarriah’s killer had plans of their own and had taken her from her bed late that night. Jamie Arnold, Dannarriah’s mother, reported her missing from their residence located in the 1000 block of 4th Street. Arnold told investigators she had last seen her daughter asleep at 4 a.m. in a white floral shirt and

One of the last photos of Dinnarriah Finley.

purple shorts. When she awoke at about 10 a.m., her daughter was nowhere to be found. Arnold told the officers it was not uncommon for her to leave the front door unlocked at night because her mother often came by the house. Once the news was out, the city was flooded with volunteers to help search for the 4-year-old girl with the shy smile and long braids. Some volunteers brought helicopters and horses. But it was a pipeline inspector on July 8th who discovered the body. Everyone held their breath while they waited for autopsy result. Their worst fears came true when it was determined the body was indeed Dannarriah’s even though she was 27 miles

county and has been working in Orange County for less than a year. He added money is in the budget to cover the expense. e affiliation agreement between Lamar State College-Orange on behalf of the Department of Nursing and the Orange County Jail was renewed. e agreement allows student to conduct their educational

studies in clinical nursing at the jail in the infirmary. Sheriff Keith Merritt said a renewal is done every year. e program is at no cost to the county and sometimes as many as four nurses work in the infirmary. He added it’s a win-win for both parties and the nurses are neither paid or employed by the county. e court approved a bond for

$140,000 to provide the county a means to repair any damage to roadways and ditches that may result from the installation of pipelines under the county right of ways on Little Cypress Road, Burton Road, Old Highway 90, Oilla Road and Japanese Lane. John Banken, Precinct 3 commissioner, asked Clark Slacum, county engineer, if the county could hold the bond long enough

that the roads do not “fall apart.” Banken added companies have money built-in to redo roads and he doesn’t want taxpayers to pay. Douglas Manning, assistant county attorney, said in the past the county has held bonds and allowed the county engineer to inspect roads before releasing the bond.

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Bridge City turns 45 David Ball and Mark Dunn For e Record

e United States of America isn’t the only one celebrating a birthday in July. e city of Bridge City will be observing its anniversary when it came into existence on July 7, 1970. ough the city has been around for more than four decades, the last 10 years may have been the most eventful according to Mayor Kirk Roccaforte. “  e r e ’s been a lot of ROCCAFORTE trying times the last 10 years,” he said. “I became mayor eight years ago. Hurricane Ike hit seven years ago in 2008.” Roccaforte said in spite of Bridge City being devastated by the hurricane, the city has bounded back really well. “Bridge City is rolling along real well. It’s on the rise; on the increase,” he said. is was the first time the city of nearly 9,000 residents had flooded. Roccaforte pointed out other portions of the Golden Triangle have also flooded and have come back. “e Groves area once flooded and it didn’t deter their growth,” Roccaforte said. Follwing Ike, the city began rebuilding its infrastructure and the citizens did an “excellent job” in coming back, keeping Bridge City a “very special place,” he said. e city has been hardening its facilities, placing generators in strategic places to keep the lights running so that electricity won’t be lost in emergency situations. Nearly all the streets were

Preston “Red” Wood at his desk as Bridge City’s first mayor in 1970.

C.W. “Bubba” Hubbard recalled the founding of Bridge City in an interview with The Record prior to his death in 2005. RECORD PHOTO: Mark Dunn under water and since most have been repaired. “We have rebuilt 98 percents of our roads,” Roccaforte said. “We’ve done quite a bit of infra-

structure for wastewater. e sewer plant has been rebuilt and projects are still going on.” Another project the city continues to work on is appealing

recent FEMA flood elevation maps. Roccaforte said the city has been successful with a coalition of other governmental enti-

BRIDGE CITY 45 Page 2A

DANNARRIAH Page 3A

BC down to few dilapidated structures David Ball For e Record

•• SHERLOCK BREAUX Page......................4A • Obituaries Page......................8A •Dicky Colburn Fishing...................1B • CHURCH NEWS Page......................7A • CLASSIFIED ADS Page......................8B

And then there were four. Following Hurricane Ike the city of Bridge City had nearly 100 vacant and uninhabitable houses in the city, according to City Manager Jerry Jones. Now they’re down to four. “After the storm, we had a group of prisoners on a work program,” he said. “We had a Gradall (heavy equipment machine) attached with grapples. If a house was not livable, we would tear it down and clean up the lot. We had almost 100 of these.” Jones said the work program stopped after no more inmates were available. e remaining four will be torn down in the next few weeks and then the program will end. One of the first on the list is one on Beverly Street. Some concerned residents who live next to the abandoned property brought it to the city council’s attention

at their last meeting in mid-June. “ese houses need to be taken down. We’ll have a crew with a Gradall. Before (with the prisoner work program) there was no charge, but there will be a charge this time for the dumpster clean-up fee,” Jones said. Jones said the city has a dilapidated structures ordinance on the books which encourages owners to tear down the substandard structures or to fix them up or face charges. “We try to work things out. Clarence (Philpott), our building inspector, sends out letters,” he said. “ere’s just a few to comply with. e majority are down.” After Ike, the city had a line item in the budget to demolish the structures. e only cost was for the dumpsters with Republic Services. “Most of the people in Bridge City came in and did what they had to do,” Jones said. “When we remove a dilapidated structure it opens up a lot to build DILAPIDATED Page 3A

This house on Beverly Street in Bridge City is one of the few remaining vacant and uninhabitable houses in the city and slated to soon be torn down. City Manager Jerry Jones said after Hurricane Ike there were nearly 100 structures such as this one that has been narrowed down to four. Those four will also be razed in the near future. RECORD PHOTO: David Ball


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