Seventeen sponsors were awarded money from Hotel Occupancy Tax Funding Tuesday by the Commissioners Court. The Hotel Occupancy Tax or HOT funds will be distributed in Fiscal Year 2018-2019 totaling $214,362 dollars.
The Hotel Occupancy Tax Committee headed by Jessica Hill of the Orange County Economic Development Corporation (EDC) made its recommendations to the Court during a public hearing earlier Tuesday morning. Hill and the members of the Commissioners Court went over the requests and increased the recommended allocations by about $26,000.
The Greater Orange Area Chamber of Commerce received the largest allocation of $75,000 which will help in its sponsoring of a fishing tournament next year in Orange. The Lutcher Theater will receive $30,000 to sponsor shows at the popular venue that puts heads in beds. The Heritage House will get $20,000 to help with restoration of the historical structure that houses the museum and was damaged by Tropical Storm Harvey.
The Commissioners approved $25,000 for the EDC to rent two billboards on Interstate 10. One billboard will be on the east side and the other on the west side of the county to advertise what Orange County has to offer to visitors.
The Commissioners Court voted 4 to 1 Tuesday afternoon approving the current Tax Abatement Policy for Orange County. County Judge Dean Crooks cast the only dissenting vote. The policy was originally adopted in 2013 and was renewed previously in 2015.
The vote came the day after a one hour workshop on Monday night when the Commissioners Court discussed with civic leaders whether to add restrictions to the current tax abatement policy used by Orange County and most of the cities in the county. The consensus was not to add any restrictions.
The Sheriff’s Office will be getting new body armor and surveillance equipment. The purchase of rifle resistant body armor will be 100 percent funded by a Governor’s Office Grant Program. Captain Richard Howard who worked on the grant said the 45 vests will repel up to a .308 round when the deputy is also wearing the standard body armor.
Three drones will be purchased by the Sheriff to help detect missing persons or to help apprehend fleeing suspects according to Captain Howard. The biggest of the drones will cost over $20,000 while the two smaller drones will be between $1200 to $1300 each. Asset forfeiture funds will be used to pay for the drones.
The county will be getting a new email server for the Courthouse. The current Icewarp service is going to be replaced by a newer and larger Google G-Suite Business server. The Commissioners approved Lisa Reeves the director of the Management Information Systems to purchase the new server.
Reeves informed the Court that Google had a special offer that requires only a data migration fee of $8,024 be paid initially. The fee for the second year is $52,500 and the fee remains unchanged for the third year of the agreement.
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