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By Dawn Burleigh

INVISTA was approved for a Texas Enterprise Project Designation which will allow it to have a capital investment of $65million dollars over the next five years.

“The city of jurisdiction makes a resolution in support of it,” City of Orange Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Jay Trahan said. “This is a State of Texas incentive.”

The incentive has a job retention component, so the company is to retain 300 jobs during the five-year period, starting March 2, 2020 thru March 3, 2025.

The Single Enterprise Project designation will be eligible to receive a refund up to $2,500 per qualified job.

“This finalizes the issue if the award,” Trahan said. “August first of each year there is a report. We will follow up on it.”

Orange City Council also awarded Architectural Services for the proposed Recreation Center to Architects Inc. of Bridge City.

“He lives in Orange, has an office in Bridge City and is the only architect in Orange County,” City Manager Mike Kunst said.

The company also worked on the Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School gymnasium and the West Orange – Stark High School basketball court remodel and the installation of the new baseball, softball and football turf fields.

Kunst also said the city was still under the governor’s orders for the pandemic.

“Recent reports show Orange is doing well,” Kunst said. “We really appreciate what the citizens are doing because that is where the rubber meets the road is with the citizens.”

The mayor added the latest report showed zero new confirmed cases.

“We have 18 recovered and one who lost their life and we continue to pray for the family,” Mayor Larry Spears Jr. said. “There are 27 pending. We want to keep the numbers at zero.”

Council member Patrick Pullen reminded people to continue practicing good hygiene and social distancing.

“Please continue to commit to social distancing,” Pullen said. “It has proved to keep the cases and deaths down. IT is not ok to go rampant with parties. Keep using hand sanitizers and disinfectants.”

“We have had great reports, but it is far from over,” Spears added. “This is not something to play with. COVID is not going to go away. I want to thank all the city staff and employees who have worked with us through this. They have done and amazing and outstanding job.”

“I want to give kudos to Kelvin as he helped me with some code issues in Cove,” Council member Mary McKenna said.

Council also approved a 30 day extension to a 90 day contract for the reconstruction of Bridge Approach and Roadway after the company was impacted by COVID-19.