Hope you’re finding a way to avoid this heat. My poor air conditioner hasn’t cut off in three weeks. A lot to get to in this version of The Juice so let’s get to it.
Pam Crew Honeycutt was buried on Wednesday. She passed away July 25 at the age of 75. Pam was one of those people who came to KOGT when we started to introduce herself and offer any advice.
At the time she was running the Travel Information Center which was a good fit because her personality was as big as Texas. Pam had an interesting way of showing her love to her male friends. She loved to pinch and many times I’d find a bruise on my body and think, “Where did that come from? Oh, yeh, it was Pam!” She’d say she only pinches the one she loves!
She was almost loyal to a fault, especially with her time with the Orange Lions Club. She will be missed, but she had to be smiling as many of us “old lifer’s” (Chamber Ambassadors) got together to talk about her at her service.
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Al Granger is helping us get rid of another longtime eyesore…the old Burger Chef at Strickland and MacArthur. He’s not planning on doing anything with it in the near future. He just got tired of looking at it and we say thank you. A doctor was the last to operate out of the building and they didn’t take care of it then. I remember doing a story a few years ago of a guy living in there and he had a bunch of stolen goods from Wal-Mart, including the employee blue vest.
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I went to the Orange City Council meeting on Tuesday like many others after the agenda was posted concerning a presentation on data centers. The agenda read, “The purpose of the presentation is to familiarize the City Council with data center development
and discuss the opportunities and challenges these facilities may present for the City of Orange.”
I can certainly see why people took that information and ran with the possibility that a data center could be interested in Orange. Mayor Spears took to social media the night before the meeting to say no one was putting a data center in Orange. Councilman Brad Childs added that even if we wanted one we don’t have the infrastructure for it. So, case closed right?
So why make the presentation is what people are asking. Why get people riled up if it’s not coming?
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I forgot to say “Congrats” in the last Juice to Dan Harris (far right). Dan, or Bubba as we called him in high school, heads up the area softball umpires and their crew got to cover the 2A D2 State Championship in Austin which is a big deal. Harris was joined by Theresa Bailey, Wayne George, and Darrik Clark, who has a pretty good story to tell. He’s believed to be the first umpire from Louisiana (Westlake) to call the plate of a State Championship in Texas.
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Congrats going out to Sam and Mike Moore. Mike is part owner and Sam is in charge of player acquisition of the Lake Charles Gumbeaux Gators baseball team. The Gators are members of the Texas Collegiate League which is a summer league comprised of teams from Texas/Louisiana.
The Gators had a great second half to make the playoffs and Wednesday night they completed a sweep of the Acadiana Cane Cutters to reach the Championship game on Saturday. It’s also their first playoff series win in team history (2024).
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Congrats and good luck to Orangefield School Board President Laura Clark who has a new job as the Deputy City Manager with the City of Beaumont. And the City of Orange is going to miss the services of Andy Borel. Borel has retired as head of Animal Control after 25 years with the city. He will be moving over to work for Orange County as Parks Supervisor.
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Football practice officially kicks off Monday and we’ve already had an explosive start with Cornel Thompson coming out of retirement to coach in Jasper. The second biggest story, and the biggest in Orangefield, is the loss of sophomore Kaysen Click. As a freshman Click made All-KOGT and All-District in football and baseball. His parents have decided to move his talents to Lake Charles Barbe. He will be missed but good luck to him.
In other local sports, DJ Wilson has abruptly left his job as head basketball coach at West Orange-Stark. He’s taking a job outside of coaching in the Houston area. Michael Bethea, who had been named girls head basketball coach this summer, will move over and coach the boys. Nicole Abercrombie, who was just hired to coach the WOS volleyball team, will now double up as the girls basketball coach.
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Busy weekend as I’ll be hosting the Chamber’s Purse Bingo on Friday night and I’ll be announcing the OCARC Fishing Tournament on Saturday afternoon. And coming up in September I’ll be interviewing former Aggie/Cowboy Dat Nguyen for a Salvation Army promotion. And thank you for the comments on our last two Behind the Mic podcasts.
Have a great weekend and stay cool!
-Gary Stelly-
gstelly66@gmail.com
Volume 2 No. 10
The Juice is a column where Gary Stelly discusses things that’s happened in the area and mixes it with 40 years of being involved in the Orange County community. (If we think of a better way to explain it we’ll change it) You can also check out his podcast by clicking on the Behind the Mic banner on the KOGT.com front page.
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