The train depot restoration will be getting more money courtesy of the Orange City Council. The council Tuesday decided to give more hotel tax money than the Friends of the Orange Depot requested. The city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau advisory committee recommended giving the group its requested $15,000. The council decided to give $25,000.
District 4 Councilor Annette Pernell, who lives in the Old Orange Historic District near the train depot, suggested the increase in money. She said the group is making the depot a focal point that will be part of the community. In addition, the group owns a vacant block to the east of the depot and plans to develop the land, she said.
District 2 Councilor Dr. Wayne Guidry agreed with Pernell on the depot and helped convince the change.
The train depot group is restoring the early 1900s Southern Pacific train station on Green Avenue. The $450,000 restoration is expected to be complete in November. The group will have a museum and community room.
In addition, the council voted to give the Southeast Texas Arts Council $10,000 instead of the $5,000 that was recommended. The arts council had requested $10,000.
At-Large Councilor Bill Mello also wanted to give $5,000 more to the Greater Orange Area Chamber of Commerce’s high school fishing tournament, but the other councilors did not agree. Still, the high school tournament will be getting $5,000.
The council decided to change the hotel-motel tax budget recommendations by taking away $10,000 from the $40,000 budgeted for an unspecified tourist-related event, and $5,000 from the $20,000 budgeted for Riverfront landscape maintenance.
A suggested to move money from the Lutcher Theater’s $50,000 budgeted had opposition.
“I don’t agree taking $5,000 from the Lutcher Theater,” At-Large Councilor Larry Spears said. “That’s our bread and butter. They’re bringing in people.”
The hotel-motel occupancy tax comes from the 7 percent tax charged onto the price charged to people staying in the local hotels. Texas law restricts the ways the money can be spent. It is designated to attracting tourism and bringing visitors to the hotels. Historical preservation is among the ways the money can be spent, though the preservation amount is restricted.
The budget this year is $634,000 and the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau will get $416,000, including salaries for the director of the bureau and the city’s new social media director. Jay Trahan, director of economic development, oversees the bureau.
Representatives from the different groups receiving money spoke to the council during a public hearing on the hotel tax expenditures for the 2016-17 budget, which starts October 1. The council spent an hour on the hotel tax budget.
Local lawyer Leslie Barras said the Orange African-American History Museum is now legally a non-profit group with a building. She said the founder has been ill but money should be given to the project.
City Manager Dr. Shawn Oubre said the city advertised for grant applications and the deadline was in July.
The Lutcher Theater is getting $50,000. The Greater Orange Area Chamber of Commerce will get a total of $48,000 for the Mardi Gras parade, the Bassmasters Open fishing tournament in June with the Sabine River Festival, and a high school fishing tournament.
John Gothia with the chamber said he went to a high school fishing tournament that had 320 boats. The parents and grandparents of the student anglers come to watch.
The Heritage House Museum is getting $30,000. Board President Leslie Williams said the group is preparing displays and the archives of her father, Dr. Howard Williams, a physician who wrote two local history books. He died last year at the age of 89 and donated his collection of historical documents and photographs. The collection will be available to the public for research in the museum’s Williams Building, named in honor of the doctor and his late wife, Elizabeth, who was one of the founders of Heritage House.
In addition, Heritage House is planning a historic ghost walk in downtown on Saturday October 29. The group also has its annual visit with Santa Claus in December.
Trahan said $40,000 was budgeted in case an opportunity came to promote an event. That was cut to $30,000.
The council members also told Oubre they want to discuss at a future meeting the plans for bathrooms at the Riverfront Pavilion downtown. The city has rented portable toilets for events since the pavilion opened in May 2013. Last month, the council rejected a proposal to spend $299,000 on permanent bathrooms plus a ‘green room’ with a private bathroom for entertainers at the pavilion. The amount is still in the reserves of the hotel tax fund.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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