Dickie Colburn: Fishing See Page 1B Cooking With Katherine See Page 8A
Hometown Highlights See Page 1B
County Record The Community Newspaper of Orange, Texas
Vol. 51 No. 47
Week of Wednesday, February 22 , 2012
Speed limit lowered on county road David Ball
For The Record
New names added to election list David Ball
For The Record
With a March 5 deadline, races are beginning to take shape for the May 12 election. Orange Former City Councilman Jimmy Sims has filed to run for mayor. Current Mayor William Brown Claybar has reached his term limit. Thus far, Sims is running unopposed. Place 1 incumbent Councilwoman Theresa Beauchamp has filed and is also running unopposed. Likewise, incumbent Charles Guillory is running unopposed for Place 6 atlarge. Place 3 Councilman Jeff Holland submitted his letter of resignation to the council last week and will not be running again, leaving his seat open. The council opted to fill the position with whoever wins the May 12 election. Pinehurst Pinehurst has the busiest election cycle so far with challenges to the incumbent mayor and two council seats being left vacant. Mayor T.W. Permenter will face Pete Runnels who is former mayor of Pinehurst, city administrator and county judge. Incumbent Councilman Bob Williams announced he is not running for reelection and incumbent Councilman John Zerko also has not announced his intentions to run again. Those filing for the council positions are David Ball, Billy Harris, Terry C. Jacobs III, Mathew Chandler
Some residents who live on one Orange County street are hoping a lower speed limit will now be safer. The Orange County Commissioners’ Court approved lowering the speed limit on Nelson Street from 30 mph THIBODEAUX to 20 mph at their meeting Tuesday morning. Precinct 3 Commissioner John Dubose said his office received a petition from residents there for the request since a number of children reside on the deadend street off of FM 1442. A letter from the Road & Bridge Department to County Judge Carl Thibodeaux read their department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office investigated the matter and concurred the 20 mph speed limit would be a reasonable speed for the street. “Nelson Street is short in length and is a dead-end street,” it read. An OCSO memo read the street is half a mile in length, narrow in width, with no striping. “I observed the residences placed close to the road with very short residential driveways. The road is a dead-end with some of the residences having to sue the ditch right of way for parking,” the letter stated.
Dubose said the residents originally requested the speed limit be posted to 15 mph but that would be too slow. They also requested street lights be placed on Nelson but the
county has no street light program. Tina Barrow, elections administrator for the county, said the state primary is tentatively set for May 29, the day
after Memorial Day. Early voting would run from May 14-19 and May 21-25. No date has been set yet for run-off elections. Barrow added it may be
unlikely to use Lamar State College-Orange students as election workers again because they will be out of school. COUNTY BUSINESS PAGE 3A
LSC-O education majors help teachers David Ball
For The Record
West Orange-Cove CISD teachers, Derek Smith, Jennifer Tippett, Donna Johnson and Chris Jowers, examine critical thinking projects done by LSC-O education majors.
It’s not often a freshman or sophomore college student has the opportunity to help certified teachers with an assignment that in turn helps their gifted and talented students in their school district. Recently, students majoring in education at Lamar State College–Orange completed critical thinking projects which were recycled by participants in the Gifted and Talented (GT) Institute. The Education Division at LSC-O is in partnership with local school districts to prepare their teachers to meet the needs of gifted and talented students. The Education Division at LSC-O began doing customized training for area schools about four years ago and continues with the Gifted and Talented Institute. The education division has developed its own curriculum for teachers of gifted and talented and high-achieving students based on guidelines set by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The Education Division caters to the needs of the district with materials for all Gifted and Talented teachers. Since gifted and talented teachers LSC-O SEE PAGE 2A
Vidor city manager leaving
David Ball
For The Record
Ricky Jorgensen, Vidor city manager, is ending his seven year tenure with the city on March 9. He’ll be the new city manager of Giddings, city on Highway 290 that is 40 miles south of Austin. Jorgensen said he looks forward to the move for two reasons: his daughter and his three-month-old grandchild lives in Austin and also Giddings has its own water, sewer and electrical works utilities. “It’s really pretty there,” he said.
Jorgensen feels the city has accomplished much in his stay in Vidor. “Vidor is a good city,” he JORGANSON said. “There’s lot of hard-working people concerned about the city. It shows in our service organizations. People who live outside have only heard things about Vidor.” Some of those accomplishments that stand out to him include completing two property annexations that allowed the city to grow, building the
Joe Hopkins Memorial Park, building a new city hall, using Hotel Occupancy Tax money to improve the quality of life in an effective way and more revenues coming in. In fact, the city is close to balancing its budget for the first time in years, he said. The city council has also reached the halfway mark in the zoning process for the city. “It (the zoning process) is left in good hands,” Jorgensen said. “The hard work is done in mapping out the areas.” The city council and the Vidor Police Association also agreed upon a new contract two years ago.
ELECTIONS SEE PAGE 3A
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Inside The Record
Bobby Brown brother of Gatemouth. RECORD PHOTO: Penny LeLeux
• SHERLOCK BREAUX Page..................... 4A
Bobby Brown, brother of ‘Gatemouth’ reminises
• Obituaries Page......................7A
David Ball
•Dicky Colburn Fishing...................1B
Sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of Paul Masson brandy and a Black and Mild cigar Bobby Brown, 75, looked back at nights of playing clubs all over the South. “I used to drink a lot of gin. I had to quit drinking that gin cause it would go to your head.” He said he couldn’t really smoke anymore because of his lungs, but he liked to taste it. “If I inhale this thing,” he said, “It would look like my chest is going to blow up. I can’t inhale it.“ Brown said he used to take two fifths of liquor to the bandstand to play. “And smoke them cigarettes.” He said, “Sometimes you couldn’t even see the band in clubs because of the cloud of smoke.” Brown is the youngest and last remaining member of a family of musicians. His father started singing and playing the violin on the street corner in Orange in front of Farmers Mercantile. He was joined with Bobby’s oldest brother James “Widemouth”
For The Record
•Outdoors Weekly Chuck Uzzle..........4B • CHURCH NEWS Page......................7B • CLASSIFIED ADS Page......................8B
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GOACC welcomes Smith Family Dome Home Builders The Greater Orange Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed Smith Family Dome Home Builders with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Smith Family Dome Home Builders build concrete monolithic domes and ecoshells that withstand the forces of nature such as hurricanes. For more information regarding the dome homes please contact David Smith at 409-745-0874.
BOBBY BROWN PAGE 3A
Where The Sun Rises On Texas And The Stars Shine First