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FISHING ORANGE COUNTY
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Commentary Kaz’s Korner
Capt. Dickie Colburn Page 1B
Nancy McWhorter
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The Record TheRecordLive.com
Vol. 58 No. 10
Distributed FREE To The Citizens of Bridge City and Orangefield
Week of Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Pay matrix discussion will lead to workshop Tommy Mann Jr. For The Record
A lengthy discussion on the elimination of a pay matrix system for elected officials will lead to an eventual workshop session for numerous elected officials and commissioners court. Orange County Commissioners met in its regularly Tuesday afternoon session and an enthusiastic discussion occurred once the topic of abolishing the current elected officials pay matrix system was reached. This topic was originally brought up briefly during prebudget talks in the summer of 2015 and even touched on at a recent commissioners court meeting when the topic of Or-
ange County Commissioners taking a pay cut was mentioned by a county commissioner. Orange Banken County Judge Stephen Brint Carlton presented the topic and stated he was searching for a way to bring the pay scale for Orange County elected officials into line with one another and not have such disparity in salary between people doing the same job, such as Constables, Justices of the Peace, and County Commissioners. This would also potentially impact the Sheriff and County Judge. “I’m not a fan of having an
BCCC unveils public coupon program Tommy Mann Jr. For The Record
The Bridge City Chamber of Commerce has created a new program which it hopes will have three positive effects for all those involved. The Bridge City Chamber of Commerce has unveiled its new coupon program on a page of its official website at the end of June and believes it will be a successful endeavor to generate interest for not only the chamber, but its membership and for the community. “Our ambassadors are always trying to come up with new ideas to help our economy in Bridge City,” said B.J.
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh ; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” Galatians 5:13
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Hanneman, administrative assistant and ambassador with the Bridge City Chamber of Commerce. “This coupon program will hopefully help our members and is for everyone to use.” The coupons can be found on a page of the chamber website at www.bridgecitychamber.com. The coupons, which are available to the public and do not require membership or a log-in information, are easily accessed and can be printed from home or work. The Bridge City Chamber of Commerce has approximately 175 members, which includes a variety of businesses and organizations not only in Bridge City, but also in Orangefield and the Orange-area. Hanneman said the coupon program is expected to do more than just provide valuable discounts for items and services to the public. “We are also hoping these coupons will increase traffic to (the chamber) website, which will, in turn, guide people to see our membership roster,” she explained. “People will be able to then see links to our members websites and their social media sites from there.” Some of the coupons available at this time include discounts for restaurants, lawncare, internet services and retail. More are expected to be added soon. “We look at these coupon offers as a win-win,” Hanneman added. “Everyone likes to save money, and we want everyone to be able to do that while staying here and shopping in Bridge City. We think this program will help our members and help our community and help remind everyone to shop local.” Visit www.bridgecitychamber.com or call the Bridge City Chamber of Commerce at 409-735-5671 for more information about this coupon program and its other services.
elected official pay matrix,” Carlton said. “I think it should be the job of commissioners court to set the salary and have all JP’s (Justices of the Peace) make the same amount, Constables make the same
amount and not have such disparities.” Carlton was seeking to get commissioners court to agree to abolish the elected officials pay matrix system and then hold workshops to determine
what those salaries might be for each position. “We can use the first term pay scale (for each position) as the base to decide on what the salary should be,” Carlton explained. “We’re not setting the
salary, we will just build it from that first term base.” John Banken, Orange County Commissioner of Precinct 3, voiced his displeasure with
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The Founding Of Bridge City • 46 Years Ago This Week
Citizens ‘FOR’ win to become a city David Rogers
For The Record
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s one of its “founding fathers,” H.D. Pate remembers well July 7, 1970, the day citizens voted to incorporate Bridge City as a legal entity under the laws of Texas. The move staved off any chance of the community of 6,000 being gobbled up by its larger neighbors in Southeast Texas, Orange and Port Arthur. “It was mostly a matter of pride,” said Pate, who, with fellow attorney Feagin Windham, filed the lawsuit that led the way. “We had to keep our identity, keep the pride of ‘You’re in your hometown,’” Pate said. “And we were in our hometown, and we’re still in our hometown.” The 46th anniversary of that vote – decided by a count of 677 for, 446 against – finds a city that, according to mayor David Rutledge, has changed its outward appearance but not its core. He recalls when Texas Avenue, “the drag” between the Rainbow Bridge and the Cow Bayou Bridge was punctuated on each end by Burger Town and Tenney’s Drive-In, with hot spots like The Caboose and Dip-O Drive-In other high-traffic stops along the route. The road itself was a “two-lane” back then, said the mayor, an incoming senior at Bridge City High School in the summer of 1970. “Then it went to four lanes and it’s seven lanes now,” he said. “Businesses have come and gone over the years, or they’ve evolved,” Rutledge said. “But we’ve always been kind of a bedroom community. A lot of people work in the refineries and chemical plants in the area. “Our citizens want the same as why my parents moved us there: a safe place to raise a family, and our schools are fantastic. That hasn’t changed.” The community wasn’t known as Bridge City until 1941, the name coming after the construction of the Rainbow Bridge over the Neches in 1938 and the Cow Bayou Swing Bridge at the eastern end of Texas Avenue in 1940. According to historian Charlotte Schexnider Chiasson, the name was suggested first for the school district by members of a local quilting club, due to the bridges one crossed to enter the town. After that, the community became known as Bridge City. In the early 1960s, Gulf States Utilities built a power plant on the east side of the Neches, near Bridge City. Its 645-acre site produced enough electricity to power a 350-mile swath of east Texas and west Louisiana.
Bridge City Mayor David Rutledge says, ““Our citizens want the same as why my parents moved us there: a safe place to raise a family, and our schools are fantastic. That hasn’t changed.” RECORD PHOTO: Tommy Mann Jr.
On Sept. 22, 1970, Bridge City held it’s first city election. Preston M. “Red” Wood narrowly edged out Jay Eshbach by three votes to become Bridge City’s first mayor. Seen with the new mayor are Jo Bernard, Gay Bell and Christy Heath.
Orange and Port Arthur became embroiled in legal squabbles that centered on tax revenue generated by the GSU plant. Port Arthur had previously annexed land that the plant sat on and Orange announced a plan to annex land beyond the mouth of the Sabine River all the way to Lake Sabine to benefit from future industrial development. Bridge City was caught in the middle.
Annexation of the town seemed inevitable. After the establishment of the Bridge City Chamber of Commerce in 1959, twice in 1961 elections were held for incorporation. Twice they failed. The Citizens for Bridge City Incorporation 1970 had a different outcome. “We had a good group of civic-mind-
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