oing
SPORTS VIEWS
Kaz’s Korner Page 1B
BEST FISHING IN TEXAS
Capt. Dickie Colburn Page 1B
FISHING AND OUTDDORS
Caroline Brewton Columnist
Capt. Chuck Uzzle Page 3B
Page 2A
County Record Vol. 56 No. 14
The Community Newspaper of Orange, Texas
Week of Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Detour set for Pine Bluff area culvert project David Ball
For The Record
Residents on Pine Bluff Road will not be stranded when culvert construction soon starts. The Orange County Commissioners’ Court approved authorizing County Judge Carl Thibodeaux to sign the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit for the construction of a temporary detour. The detour will be necessary while the culvert is being replaced on an unnamed tributary of the Sabine River on Pine Bluff Road. Clark Slacum, county engineer, said this is a Texas General Land Office project. Owen Burton, Precinct 2 commissioner, asked if this project would affect drainage because fill dirt will be added
to the tributary. Slacum said it would not affect drainage. Burton also asked how long the project will take to comSLACUM plete. Slacum answered a month or less and residents will be able to enter and exit their neighborhood. Commissioners also approved the Road & Bridge Department to utilize budgeted funds for the purchase of road building materials. Slacum said the project requires a chip-seal aggregate which also a GLO project. The GLO will reimburse the county dollar for dollar for expenses.
The materials will be stocked at the Orange County Airport at the site where the hold FEMA camps were housed for the hurricanes. Douglas Manning, assistant
county attorney, announced after closed session the county will negotiate in good faith in mediation for the Montano v. Orange County, Texas case in the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Texas- Beaumont Division. Manning said he could not comment further because proceedings were headed to mediation.
Penny LeLeux, of the The Record Newspapers, informed the commissioners’ court of National Dance Day from 7 COUNTY BUSINESS Page 3A
OICD still mulling over security options David Ball
For The Record
The Orangefield Independent School District Board of Trustees are taking steps to make their campus more secure. The trustees met Monday night at a special meeting to discuss various issues including security measures, particularly in response to an act of vandalism last month. Dr. Stephen Patterson, school superintendent, reported he has received one bid from Ion Security Systems of Bridge City. He still hasn’t received bids from two other security companies. Patterson told the board, however, the bids were too high, or “outside the scope” of what was previously discussed. He couldn’t see placing the item on the next meeting agenda and they are exploring other options. The district is looking to install locking front doors with cameras and cameras on all exit doors, evenly spaced out for maximum coverage. The cost would be $25,000 to complete the junior high building and it would cost more than $120,000 for the high school’s gymnasium, 100 building, 200 building and 300 building. Shaun McAlpin, assistant
superintendent of finance, said the cameras would not be basic CCTV cameras, but motion activated cameras with their own PATTERSON servers and bandwidths. The need for cameras was made necessary when at 7:35 a.m. on Friday, June 20, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies were told by an official with the Orangefield ISD that the Orangefield Junior High School building had been vandalized. Once deputies arrived, the custodial staff at the school reported they found different areas within the school had been ransacked and damaged. Deputies located open paint cans with the contents dumped on the floors and spread on some lockers in the main hall during the investigation. Several of the classrooms had paint, glue, and hand sanitizer spread on chairs and on the floors. A trophy was found broken in a locker room and food products were spread in areas throughout the school. GarORANGEFIELD Page 3A
Man stepped on the moon for the first time July 20,1969. Sunday is the 45th anniversary of that historic event.
NASA Photo.
‘One Small Step’ Roy Dunn and David Ball For The Record
“This nation tossed its cap over the wall of space and we have no choice but to follow it,” said John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, Nov. 21, 1963 at the Aerospace Medical Center in San Antonio. In 1961, there was a race to space. The participants were the United States and Russia, and both sides were determined to be the first. John Kennedy wanted to get a man on the moon and bring him back safely by the end of the decade. He didn’t live to see it. A sniper ended Kennedy’s life in Dallas, Texas, but the dream was already underway.
President John F. Kennedy
July 20, 1969, millions, including then President Richard Nixon, were listening to radio or watching TV when the voice of Astronaut Neil Armstrong cracked across the airwaves. “That’s one
small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” He had stepped off the lunar module with his left foot descending into history. He was standing on the surface of the moon. It wasn’t blue. It wasn’t green cheese. It was more like powdered charcoal and a magnificent desolation. Armstrong received numerous awards for his efforts, including the Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Orange County Judge Carl Thibodeaux remembers that day. He was working at Kelsey-Seybold in Houston. He completed pharmacy school one year earlier. “The other day I found an old Houston Chronicle and
Houston Post newspapers with the moon landing on it,” he said. “My wife was at home, sitting in the rocking chair and feeding our oldest child. She told me it was on TV,” Thibodeaux recollects. Though he missed the live shot, Thibodeaux saw the replays on the news. “Everybody was talking about it. It was exciting. President Kennedy was assassinated earlier and this was a way of rejuvenating the nation and belief in America again,” he said. “It helped the country and increased patriotism.” Many do not know that the moon landing almost didn’t MAN WALKS ON Page 3A
Historic swing bridge project right on track David Ball
For The Record
H • SHERLOCK BREAUX Page...................... 4A • Obituaries Page.......................6A •Dicky Colburn Fishing...................1B • CHURCH NEWS Page................ ......5B • CLASSIFIED ADS Page......................6B
The Cow Bayou Swing Bridge project is on time and on target with less than a year to complete according to Sarah Dupre, Texas Department of Transportation public information officer. Dupre said work is currently being done in the fender system- an underwater guardrail that protects the bridge from boats ramming into it. Crews have also completed seven out of 12 deck spans which are the portions of the bridge driven on, she explained. “We will continue to replace the fender system and to have the deck spans poured,” Dupre said. Fifty percent of the turn mechanism has also been installed or ordered to make the machinery up to date. All four
lanes on the Cow Bayou Overpass Bridge bypassing the swing bridge are now open. One lane was closed during the July 4th holiday to repair a guardrail, causing traffic jams. It is scheduled to be completed in March 2015. In a prior Record article, it was reported phase two of the rehabilitation and historic preservation of the Cow Bayou Swing Bridge started on January 31, 2014. Texas Department of Transportation officials then made plans on future lane closures and re-routing traffic. The $9.5 million project will cover 0.991 miles and is scheduled to take 476 working days to complete. Workers will make repairs while keeping the bridge, the control building and other parts historically accurate. They will use new and the working old parts to restore the control desk while the new
Man stepped on the moon for the first time July 20,1961. Sunday is the 45th anniversary of that historic event.
building will mimic the original structure. The Cow Bayou Swing Bridge is one of only two remaining center pivot swing bridges of it’s kind remaining in Texas. It was named to the National
Register of Historic Places in 2010. The Rainbow Bridge was listed to the N.R. in 1996. It was history in the making when an estimated 3,000 people attended the 1941 dedication. The ribbon was cut by
Miriam David, the daughter of Julis H. David, Sr., the president of the Orange Chamber of Commerce. The Bengal Guards of Orange and the Red Hussars of Port Arthur, musical marching bands from the two high schools, marched towards the Cow Bayou Bridge from opposite directions and met in the center of the span for the ribbon cutting. The Rainbow Bridge, which was originally the Port ArthurOrange Bridge, was completed in 1938. The following year construction began on the ‘Cow Bayou Bridge’, a swing bridge with an electric motor. Both bridges where marvels of American technology in the years leading into World War II, as they are today. The swing bridge at Cow Bayou was the fiCOW BAYOY SWING Page 3A