Dickie Colburn: Fishing See Page 1B Cooking With Katherine See Page 8A
Columnist Kent Conwell Page 5A
County Record Vol. 51 No. 42
The Community Newspaper of Orange, Texas
Trahan touts Orange as tourist mecca David Ball
For The Record
Orange County Democrats greet candidates David Ball
For The Record
Though it’s January, the Orange County Democratic Party is already gearing up for the 2012 election year. The party held a meet and greet with local candidates running for office Saturday night at the VFW Hall in Orange. Chairman Mark Carter said a committee was formed at the Democrats monthly meeting to organize the meet and greet event. Co-charis Carol Edwards and Debra Mitchell were instrumental in organizing the event. “It gets the candidates out there and puts a face on the ballot and people have time to visit with them in a casual atmosphere,” Carter said. “All of us have a voice in government. We have these fine candidates here.” Candidates at the meet and greet included Lynn T. Arceneaux who is running for Pct. 2 Constable, Michael Abbott who is running for County Court at Law judge, Addie D. Allen who is running for U.S. Senate, John Dubose who is running for reelection as Pct. 3 Commissioner, James Stringer who is running for Pct. 1 Commissioner and Sarah Jefferson-Simon who is running for Pct. 1 Constable. Several elected officials attended the event as well. Arceneaux said he has always wanted to be a constable. “I retired two years ago and it would be great to serve Pct. 2 and Orange County,” Arceneaux said. “I’ve spent 20 years in the Orange Police Department, two-and-a-half years with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and seven-anda-half years with the Vidor Police Department.” Abbott currently serves OC DEMOCRATS PAGE 2A
Inside The Record • SHERLOCK BREAUX Page..................... 4A • Obituaries Page......................7A •Dicky Colburn Fishing...................1B •Outdoors Weekly Chuck Uzzle..........4B • CHURCH NEWS Page......................7B • CLASSIFIED ADS Page......................8B
Week of Wednesday, January 18 , 2012
Jay Trahan, executive director for the Orange Economic Development Corporation, believes it’s an exciting time to be in Orange, Texas. Not only has the Downtown Development Project, the Senior Center/Meals on Wheels facility, the Central Fire Station and I-10 expansion are being built or will soon to be built, but Orange could possibly be a future stop for tourists. Trahan and Darline Zavada, administrator of the Orange Convention and Visitors Bureau, recently attended a national event sponsored by the American Bus Association in Grapevine for the first time. The event is for motor coach owners and operators and tour promoters and two have said they may stop in Orange this year. “Their trips are planned two to three years out,” Zavada said. “Two are coming through Orange to San Antonio–one in February and one in August. They said maybe they’ll stop, stay overnight or eat a meal here.” Zavada and Trahan originally had 28 appointments with the operators at the event. They met with 26 of them. She said they were “very fortunate” to meet with so many because other cities who attended these events year after year and they don’t get to meet with that many operators. “Everything about it was positive,” she said. “They had an interest in Orange and
they had questions about hotel properties, to dining. Two groups are trying to rearrange
their schedules to make stops in Orange this year.” Trahan said they visited
over 20 booths in an effort to promote Orange tourist attractions and motel accommo-
ORANGE SEE PAGE 3A
Public gets bird’s-eye view of IH-10 project David Ball
For The Record
trying to give you an idea of what all we will be looking at this year. Not only Mosquito Control, but any entity that falls under Orange County.” He said it could included Road and Bridge and the Parks Department, or any department that uses herbicides. Beebe said other entities are looking into forming coalitions to help manage permits and implement all the requirements and the record keeping. Caroll and Blackman Inc. is
The general public had a chance to receive information firsthand Tuesday night from Texas Department of Transportation officials on the Interstate 10 construction project. The open house meeting was held at the Orange Public Library Auditorium with various maps placed about the room for the upcoming construction project from Adams Bayou to the Sabine River. Jay Trahan, director of the Orange Economic Development Corporation, wrote in an e-mail, “The purpose of the project is to reconstruct IH-10 and to make frontage road improvements at State Highway 87 (16th Street) and Business 90 (Simmons Drive).” Matthew Volkmann, an engineer with the TxDOT Beaumont district office, was available to answer questions from the public. He said the open house was designed to let everyone know what they were proposing to do. “The roadway is aging and county judges voted I-10 as a regional priority,” he said. Funding for the over $40 million project came from Proposition 12 to replace the roadway.
COUNTY BUSINESS PAGE 3A
IH-10 PROJECT PAGE 3A
Left to right: Jay Trahan, Director of Economic Development; Darline Zavada, CVB Administrator; Peter Pantuso, President and CEO of ABA (Washington, D.C.).
New requirements affect Mosquito Control Penny Leleuxww For The Record
Mosquito Control Director Patrick Beebe informed the Orange County Commissioners’ Court Tuesday of an upcoming deadline concerning new permit requirements. The changes are newly adopted requirements by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). “It applies to all biological or chemical applications that meet certain use patterns that are made either over or near
dations. “It was a productive event because several bus operators asked for additional information. We had seven minutes to visit with the tour operators to create an impression,” he said. Trahan said they were al-
U.S. waters,” said Beebe. The permit is required if you are treating areas in excess of 6,400 acres. Type of materiBEEBE als used is another area Orange County falls under. “Some of the materials we use are general use pesticides, some of them are state limited use and some of them are restricted use. We use a combination of all the above,” he said.
“There are a lot of requirements with the permit,” said Beebe. It will include mapping coverage areas, material inventory, a pesticide discharge management plan, calibration procedures, inspection guidance forms, adverse incident reporting guidance forms, site specific training, and records have to be prepared for an annual audit. “That’s just a few of the things, we don’t have enough time to cover everything that’s in this permit and I’m not going try and do that. I’m just
LCM Life Skills a model for Special Olympics Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School has again been recognized by Special Olympics. LCM HS Life Skills Teacher, Terrie Parker, Activities Director, Stacey Smith, and students Clyde Jones and Dallas Lopez have been invited to attend a Project UNIFY workshop from Feb. 21 to 23 in Portland, Ore. Each participating state program had the opportunity to select facilitating teachers and one pair of students from one of their active high school groups, with Project UNIFY paying all expenses, including travel, meals and hotel. LCM’s selection is a result of activities such as the Bear Bowl and the student council’s campaign race and win for Texas Association of Student
Council (TASC) office on the “Erase the R-Word” platform. LCM HS was named an “Ideal Inclusion School” by the National Special Olympics Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and is referred to as a model school by Special Olympics trainers around the state. According to Dr. Terri Estes, LCMHS principal, “Many things that we do on a daily basis and sometimes take for granted, like Life Skills students eating lunch with “typically developing” students in the cafeteria, do not happen in other schools. Texas Special Olympics office frequently uses LCM High School as a model for others to emulate as they develop their program across Texas and the nation.
Teacher Terrie Parker and students accept National Special Olympics’ award earlier in the school year.