By Michael Cole

The Orange Leader

A public workshop and a regular meeting were on the court’s plate on Tuesday afternoon.

Orange County Economic Development Corporation Director Jennifer Hill gave a presentation on the recommendations for how to allocate funds received from the Hotel Tax.

“The Hotel Tax occupancy committee met in the beginning of October to review the applications and made their recommendations,” Hill said.

The court largely accepted the recommendations of the committee with two exceptions. 

Originally, the committee recommended a grant of $10,000 to the Heritage House. This amount was half of the $20,000 awarded last year. 

The commissioners felt the Heritage Foundation needed more since they were still recovering from Harvey and Imelda.

“I have a friend who comes down from D.C. to do research at the Heritage House,” Theresa Beauchamp Precinct 2 Commissioner said. 

“Your (the Heritage House) allocation is usually $10,000,” Orange County Judge John Gothia said. “We upped it last year because of Harvey. We look at things like heads in beds and those kinds of things.”

Heritage House Board President Sue Denosowicz said, “It just takes you longer than you think it will to recover from a storm. We are not open for daily tours yet, but we are holding special events.”

She added saying all of their tours were historical tours and events.

When asked when they could expect to reopen to tours, Spring was the best estimate she could make.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Johnny Trahan suggested, “I would like to boost that up to 15.”

The other deviation from the committee’s recommendations was on the Vidor Chamber Winter Lights.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Robert Viator, Jr. suggested they were not quite at the point to need funding. 

“The primary rule for this is putting heads in beds,” Viator said. “I don’t think they are there yet.”

The court ended up allocating:

 

• Cormier Museum                                         $8000
• GOAC.                                                       $100,000
• Gulf Coast Cajuns.                                       $6,000
• Hamfest.                                                        $6,000
• Lutcher Theater                                         $20,000
• Music by the Stars.                                       $7,500
• Q’ing for a Cause.                                          $3,000
• OC Livestock.                                                 $3,000
• Cowboy Church Rodeo                                $5,000
• Friends of the Orange Depot                      $5,000
• Orange Lions Club.                                       $5,000
• Billboards                                                     $50,000

 

Emergency Management Coordinator Joel Ardoin was in a regional meeting to appeal for a Federal Disaster declaration for public entities, so he could not brief the court on Imelda updates.

Judge Gothia reported, “Our debris mission is still ongoing. As of Friday, we had 13,366 cubic yards collected in Vidor. And 26,673 cubic yards in the County. So, we are steadily moving forward.”

In other court action, the court passed a resolution honoring Cedric Stout on his 98th Birthday.

Stout enlisted in the Navy in March of 1941 and served aboard USS Utah (BB-31) during the December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack.

He was born on November 5, 1921.