Christine Vermeulen Hanchey is in a fencing match with the city of Orange. City officials told her and her husband their 28-foot-long wooden fence violates the city ordinance forbidding tall, opaque fences in front yards. But the residents of the Old Orange Historic District contend the fence at 711 Eight Street is along their back yard. Hanchey said if the city makes her take the custom-designed wooden fence down, she’s going to sell the house and the two 1940s apartment buildings on Fifth Street she has renovated. The apartments are also in The District. “I’ve never seen anything … [Read more...] about Mending Fences

Two Pinehurst restaurants had low scores during February's health inspections. JJ Wings and Seafood on MacArthur Drive had a 75 and Kotoyama, also on MacArthur, had a 70. Orange County Health Inspector James Scales reported finding dead and live roaches throughout Kotoyama, and reported the kitchen hand-washing station did not have running water, either hot or cold. In the past few months, Scales has handed out mostly A's and B's during inspections of restaurants and food businesses. During February, he went to 39 food establishments and gave ten perfect scores. The perfect ones were … [Read more...] about Restaurant Reports

Four people in a Honda Civic escaped injury Thursday night when the car went off FM 105, hit a ditch, went airborne and rolled over. Orange police were called at 10:11 p.m. to the 4500 block of FM 105, about a mile west of Highway 87 South. Police reported 29-year-old Matthew Blake Chandler was driving westbound on the road. The front passenger "made contact with the steering wheel," which made the car go across the opposite lane of traffic, police said. The car went through the ditch and became airborne. It landed on the left top and then rolled onto the wheels. The car stopped in a grassy … [Read more...] about Four Escape Injury; House Ransacked