Rain, plants, and chicken stayed in the news during the past year. Imelda brought record-making rain in September. A proposed new Chevron-Phillips petrochemical plant dominated talk, along with hopes and dreams.
And construction started on the new Chick-fil-A restaurant off Interstate 10 at 16th Street and the foundation was laid for KFC on MacArthur Drive.
Imelda was a fast-forming tropical system that came ashore in Southeast Texas with a deluge of rain that brought back nightmares of Harvey two years earlier. Areas in Jefferson County got 48 inches of rain, making Imelda the fourth largest rainfall event in U.S. weather history.
In Orange County, the Vidor and Mauriceville areas got more than 20 inches of rain and had more flooding than the rest of the county. County Emergency Management Director Joel Ardoin reported 2,271 buildings in the county flooded. Some had not been repaired from Harvey before flooding again.
Chevron Phillips Chemical in January made public the plans to build a new chemical plant in Orange. The company said Orange is a finalist for potential sites on the Gulf Coast and local entities began a process to draw the $5.3 billion plant here. The plant is supposed to bring an estimated 3,500 construction jobs plus at least 300 permanent jobs.
A controversy concerning the proposed plant and tax incentives led to a change in the Orange County Commissioners Court. As the West Orange-Cove and Bridge City school boards approved special school tax breaks through the state, County Judge Dean Crooks wrote and distributed a six page letter about his opinions on tax abatements and how the county should be wary of giving away too much to a company.
The letter brought an inundation of complaints as people supported giving tax abatements, especially for the biggest project to come to the county in a half century.
Crooks at a commissioners court meeting in March announced he was resigning immediately. He had beat the incumbent judge, Brint Carlton, in 2018 and taken office in June 2018 after Carlton resigned for another job. Crooks had served less than three months of his first four-year term in office before resigning.
His resignation led to a shuffle of court positions as commissioners had to deal with state law on replacing a judge. In the end, Precinct 3 Commissioner John Gothia resigned. Former Bridge City Mayor Kirk Roccaforte was appointed to the Precinct 3 position and then the court appointed Gothia as county judge.
By the end of December, Orange County was prepared to sign a tax abatement with Chevron, but Gothia said the contract needed more details worked out.
The petrochemical plant complex on FM 1006, known as Chemical Row, kept in the headlines through the year. In January when Chevron Phillips was announcing the county as a plant finalist, Printpack plastic film company announced it would be closing the Orange plant by the end of the year.
A historic move was made in April. DuPont Sabine River Works, which opened in 1946 as the first petrochemical plant in Orange, officially became Dow Sabine River Operation.
Also, Firestone Polymers, which had kept its name for some 60 years, was sold to Lion Elastomers. At the end of the year, Arlanxeo announced it would close one of its units here.
The bad part of plant news came in November when an explosion at the TCP plant in Port Neches shook houses in Orange County and caused damage to some in the Bridge City area.
Development continued with good news in June when physician Dr. Marty Rutledge announced the plans for the Gisela Houseman Medical Complex at the Eagle Point property off Interstate 10 at Highway 62. Houseman is donating 20 acres for the complex which will include a small hospital. The county has been without a hospital since Baptist closed.
Pinehurst had a change in the city council when Mayor Pete Runnels resigned because of health reasons. Longtime councilor Dan Mohon was appointed mayor and then retired LSCO president Mike Shahan was appointed to Mohon’s at-large position.
Pinehurst development included the completion of Pawhurst Park, the county’s first dog park.
The city of Orange had major changes when offices moved from the old Green Avenue city hall downtown to a renovated commercial building on 16th Street. In addition, the council hired Mike Kunst, who was city manager of Vidor, to be the new Orange city manager.
The city also sold $8 million in improvement bonds with half designated for road repairs. Those repairs started. Another bond project is the construction of a covered events pavilion at the Boat Ramp and a ground-breaking ceremony was held before Christmas.
Construction on Interstate 10 continued but the construction project drawing the most complaints was the rebuilding of the East Roundbunch Road Bridge across Cow Bayou. Texas Department off Transportation has had the bridge closed for more than two years to repair the mechanism to the old swing bridge.
The bridge allows East Roundbunch Road to be used as a major thoroughfare for residents in the Bridge City area to get to the Chemical Row plants. Judge Gothia said in December a new part to the bridge has to be custom-made and should be ready soon.
Two murders of toddlers in separate cases shocked people, including investigators. The father of a girl and the mother of a boy were charged with murder.
In February, Orange police went to a house in Roselawn where they found a bloody young man and the body of a 2-year-old girl who had been beaten to death with a hammer. The father of Savanna Roque, Yovahnis Roque, was arrested and charged with capital murder.
Then in March, a Mauriceville woman was arrested for capital murder in connection with the suffocation death of 18-month-old Raydyn Jones. 34-year-old Raychyl D. Philmon, who is facing the charge, is the mother of the child.
Two former public office holders passed away during the year. Joe Parkhurst had been a long-time educator who ran for office after he retired. He won the Precinct 1 justice of the peace position and served three terms before retiring from that job. He then went to work again as interim Pinehurst city administrator.
Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton was a restauranteur who was elected to be state representative from the district that included Orange County. He lost his position to redistricting and continued operating his businesses. He suffered a heart attack at the end of the year.
Also, Orange County Sheriff Keith Merritt and Newton County Sheriff Billy Rowles announced they would not seek re-election in 2020 and will retire after their current terms end. New sheriffs will take oaths of office on January 1, 2021.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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