The Sabine River rose and spilled over onto the land to cause historic flooding levels. March 2016 will be remembered for the flood that covered most of Deweyville and the east side of Orange County.
The flood and the amount of water rushing down river is obviously the top story for the past year. However, a disaster could be forming for medical care. Orange County for the first time in more than a century will have to learn to live without a hospital for emergencies.
Baptist Hospital of Southeast Texas ended the year by announcing that it would close its emergency room at the Orange hospital. Baptist ceased delivering babies in May 2013 and then closed the 112-bed in-patient hospital in 2015. The hospital kept the emergency room open 24 hours a day, but that too will close in January 2017.
The Orange City Council decided to buy a 16th Street bank for $2 million and move city hall from the historic downtown area. A local lawyer and non-profit group filed for a court injunction to stop the move, which was made without a word of discussion from the council. However a state court and then a state appeals court ruled the city could make the move.
Orange County lost its ongoing fight to not pay almost $3 million in damages and legal fees to the family of a man who died in the Orange County Jail in 2011. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the family of 41-year-old Robert Montano.
Other news through the year included the City of Pinehurst announcing an agreement to get an HEB store on MacArthur Drive. Bridge City citizens complained about the color and quality of tap water for months.
Even with the bad news, good things happened, too. The West Orange-Stark Mustangs won a second straight state football championship. In Texas, a state championship is big news outside of sports.
A crime story grabbed lots of attention from KOGT radio listeners and readers of kogt.com. Crooks were using credit-debit card skimmers on gas pumps around town. After getting the card information, hundreds of dollars or charges would then be made on the cards.
The Orange Police Department even began a regular check of gas pumps within the city limits. However, no arrests have been made in connection with the fraudulent charges.
Another story during the year that attracted a lot of attention had a sad ending. Petey the Chihuahua was stolen from a Pinehurst kennel. Police there put out a bulletin looking for Petey. Tragically, by the time people were looking for him, poor Petey had been run over along the side of a road. Another animal disaster was the fire of an 18-wheel rig carrying 6,000 live chickens on Interstate 10. About 2,000 of the birds baked in the blaze.
The March Sabine River flood also brought out the critters. Wild hogs were running around downtown Orange and the Old Orange Historic District as the water covered the old Riverside area, Simmons Drive and East Orange. Wild Hogs have lived in the marshes and vacant land for years and sought high ground.
No ground was high enough in the Deweyville area and along the Sabine during the record-setting flood. Rain storms sending up to 20 inches of rain for days in places of the upper Sabine River Basin brought on flooding in the northeast Texas area and the water came downstream.
The Sabine River Authority for the first time in the 50-year history of Toledo Bend Reservoir Dam opened all gates at 22 feet wide. SRA officials said the integrity of the dam was at stake. The open gates sent 208,000 cubic feet of water per second rushing out and flooding the countryside. The amount was double the 100,000 cubic feet of water that goes over Niagara Falls.
Deweyville residents are accustomed to flooding, but the sandbags and tricks they had used for years didn’t work this time. The unincorporated town was inundated with water going up to rooftops. The flood level surpassed the unofficial 1884 record of 32.7 feet.
Orange County called for evacuations of people living east of Highway 87. The river though flooded into Little Cypress Bayou. Some people west of Highway 87 got water in their homes as others stayed up through nights fretting as the water kept creeping toward them.
The flooding spread across the lowland swamps and marshes. Interstate 10 in Orange and Louisiana were closed for the first time in its history as water covered the highway. Other bridges along the state border were also closed.
Travel to Louisiana from Texas became a nightmare. Truck rigs were being detoured from Houston to Longview to cross into Louisiana. A board member of the SRA sent what she thought was a joking email to the SRA director. The board member from Longview said the release of water from the dam was helping economic development in Longview. When the email became public, people losing their homes and possessions to the flood were furious. The board member resigned.
The city of Orange also called an evacuation for everyone living east of the railroad tracks. Pinehurst and West Orange wanted people along Adams Bayou to evacuate.
The Sabine rose over Simmons Drive and into houses on the east side of town. The streets in downtown and the Old Orange Historic District were also flooded, though the water did not get in as many buildings as the storm surge in Hurricane Ike. The city later reported 175 buildings had water.
A few weeks after the flooding, Orange County Emergency Management Coordinator Ryan Peabody resigned under pressure. County Commissioners Court later hired Charlie Cox to the position.
The hospital emergency room closing was announced before Christmas and shocked local officials with the county and cities. They had not been prepared for the closing or notified in advance.
Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas in a statement said the physicians group staffing the local emergency room was not going to renew its contract. Also, the influx of free-standing, for-profit emergency centers had taken patients away from the hospital ER. Patients had not been paying bills, either.
Bridge City had its own water problems, but not from flooding. The city tap water had turned so bad that even nationally-known activist Erin Brockovich posted Facebook messages about it.
Bridge City residents had complained for months about tap water coming out a brown shade comparable to chewing tobacco spit. Homeowners complained their washing machines, dishwashers and water heaters were breaking because of the water.
Then in July, the city sent letters to water customers. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality tests showed the water had gone over the maximum levels for trihalomethanes, a by-product of chlorine used for disinfecting.
The city council had already approved $1.5 million of bonds to get new filters on the city’s three wells. Some people saw improvements in water, while some didn’t.
Bridge City got to celebrate, too. The new police station and municipal court building opened. In May, Mayor Kirk Roccaforte, who had overseen the city after disastrous Hurricane Ike, had to step down because of term limits. David Rutledge became mayor in May. Roccaforte didn’t leave the council. He took the council seat in Place 2.
In January Bridge City welcomed new superintendent Todd Lintzen to town. Lintzen had been the superintendent in Blue Ridge, Texas.
In our feel good story of the year, the Orangefield Bobcats went viral when they made an elderly man’s dream come true. Abner Simon, 89, came back to Orangefield from Virginia in October hoping to get his high school transcripts. He was drafted in 1945 before he graduated. While he was given a tour of the facilities the Bobcats were at work behind the scenes creating a diploma and a graduation ceremony, complete with a cap and gown, the band, and a photo with the Class of 2017.
The Orange City Council started off the year with a surprise move. After meeting several times in 2015 in closed-door sessions to “discuss the city hall campus,” the city staff put out a meeting agenda to buy the First Financial Bank building on 16th Street for $2 million and turn it into city hall. That would mean leaving the 1920s Craftsman style mansion in downtown that had housed city hall for 70 years.
Though people spoke against the move and asked the council to give more time for public input, the council without any discussion voted for the sale. Leslie Barras, a lawyer who lives in the Old Orange Historic District, along with the non-profit Historic Orange Preservation Empowerment group filed for an injunction to stop the move. Barras, who specializes in urban development and historic preservation, contended the move did not follow the city’s master plan. The city charter requires officials to follow the master plan and go through set procedures to change the plan.
State District Judge Buddie Hahn ruled in the city’s favor. The group appealed and in November, the Texas Ninth Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the city. The appeals court said the master plan is “a tool for elected and appointed officials,” but not a law.
Some of the good news for the city of Orange included the opening of splash pad at Navy Park, though some people complained because it was a simple design with no play features. The city council also approved a skate park to be built at Sunset Park. The concrete slab for the equipment was poured at the end of December.
In other good recreation news, the city opened the natatorium during the summer. The pool had been closed the year before because the city could not find enough lifeguards to operate. The city council had approved a plan to increase the lifeguard pay and pay for the training.
In addition, the railroad quiet zone officially went into effect during 2016 after five years of work and the installation of a wayside horn on Green Avenue. Trains do not blow their horns through the city now.
Gail English, who served as city finance director for more than 25 years, retired.
Orange County is getting new officials after the 2016 elections. All county officials are now in the Republican Party and no contested local races were on the November ballot. During the primary, Johnny Trahan beat off challengers and won a run-off for the Precinct 1 commissioner position. Incumbent David Dubose had decided not to run for a third term.
In the Precinct 3 commissioner race, challenger John Gothia beat incumbent John Banken. Longtime county tax assessor-collector Lynda Gunstream announced she would be retiring at the end of the year. Karen Fisher, a veteran in Gunstream’s office, won election to the seat.
For the Precinct 4 constable race, Lane Mooney beat incumbent Weldon Peveto, who had held the position for 20 years.
David Peck, who was serving his second term as Precinct 1 justice of the peace, announced his retirement at the end of the year. Commissioners Court appointed Hershel Stagner to serve Peck’s unexpired term.
Chad Hogan, a detective with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, resigned in March after federal investigators went to his office to interview him. In September, the 47-year-old Hogan pleaded guilty to federal charges of money laundering.
The charges came in connection with a scheme by managers of low-income apartments in Port Arthur and Groves. The managers filed for utility assistance payments for tenants and then kept the money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Beaumont said Hogan deposited more than 4,000 of the checks in an account he controlled and would give the managers cash. He also kept some cash. The federal government is seeking restitution of $187,706.
The Housing Authority of Orange opened more new affordable housing with the Park Avenue Manor apartments in the former site of the Pine Grove complex. The authority is also building the Whispering Oaks apartments off Western Avenue in West Orange. The old public housing duplexes there were demolished. The new apartments are set to open sometime in 2017.
Besides Pinehurst getting the thrilling news of a new HEB, the city council formed a planning commission for development. Businesswoman Liz Hogan was appointed as chairperson.
However one of our most shared stories of the year came when KOGT announced that Wienerschnitzel on Mac Arthur Drive in Pinehurst, had closed. The old cliche’ of news “spreading like wildfire” was certainly the case as 98 percent of the responses were in complete disbelief and upset. However within the next 24 hours, corporate Wienerschnitzel announced a new owner would be in place along with a makeover some time in 2017.
Roads and highways were in the news during the year. Orange County Commissioners Court agreed to go forward, without a definite commitment, for what is known as “the Vidor loop.” Under the Texas Department of Transportation plan for the special projects road, the county would need to get money to pay for the road construction. The development along the new road would increase the tax base to pay for the road.
The Vidor City Council voted on a resolution against the loop contending it would take traffic away from Main Street businesses and that city residents did not want their county taxes to go up to pay for the road. Other cities in the county also passed resolutions against the road and the tax money that could be required.
At the Stark Foundation, Lutcher Theater Executive Director Jim Clark announced he will retire at the end of the current season. He has been director for 27 years. Also, historians Jo Ann Stiles and Ellen Rienstra completed and published their book on the Lutcher and Stark families. The book, “The Long Shadow: The Lutcher-Stark Lumber Dynasty” was offered for sale to the public in September after a presentation by the authors at the Lutcher Theater.
Locally, Orange County mourned the loss of prominent citizens who touched lives. In January, Michael Hoke died suddenly at a Beaumont hospital where he was taken after having medical problems teaching a workshop at Lamar University. He was a longtime West Orange-Cove school district science teacher who founded the Nature Classroom along Adams Bayou. He then became the first director of Shangri La Gardens and Botanical Center.
In January Mike “Mickey” Gentry passed away at age 69. Gentry spent 30 years in Orangefield ISD as a teacher, coach, principal and Superintendent. After he retired he was still involved as a district representative.
Also during the year, West Orange lawyer Joe Alford passed away from cancer. He served as years as attorney for several entities including the Orange County Appraisal District, the Little Cypress-Mauriceville school district and the West Orange-Cove school district. He was serving as West Orange city attorney at the time of his death.
Joe Will, the longtime city of Orange parks director, died from ALS, a disease he had dealt with for several years. Dr. Homer Stuntz died at the age of 93 in College Station. He was physician in Orange for decades and practiced with his wife, Dr. Billie Stuntz. Dr. Billie died in 2011 and the two had been married 59 years.
Orange County Sheriff’s Captain Tom Ray, 46 years old, died at his house in October and left people stunned. He was the head of the sheriff’s criminal investigation division and earned the respect of many. He was an Orangefield High graduate and had worked for the sheriff’s office for 23 years. His funeral was held at the Bob Bowers Civic Center in Port Arthur to accommodate the gathering of his friends, family and fellow law officers.
And Maxine the barred owl at Shangri La died during the year. She was a rescued owl who had lost a wing in a barbed wire fence. For more than a decade, she educated and enchanted hundreds of children (and adults) with her appearances at schools and Shangri La.
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