News

George Garza
The Vidorian

Crayons, construction paper, hand sanitizers, baby wipes, headphones, glue sticks, erasers, spiral notebooks, three ring binders and map pencils. What do all of these items have in common? They are all on one or more of the five Vidor I.S.D. 2018-2019 school supply lists. And they are items you should be looking for every time you go to the store. Why? Because they are among the items that the Vidor I.S.D. is hoping you will donate to the “Fill The Bus” School Supply Drive that takes place next week on Saturday.

Yes, it’s that time of year again and this year’s school supply drive is vitally important to all of the Vidor schools because their school supplies cupboards are practically depleted.

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The National Flood Insurance Program announced last week that the last day to file a flood insurance claim against your NFIP policy is at the end of this month (August) or the beginning of next month, depending on the date of your loss.

According to a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) news release issued on July 24th, the time for Hurricane Harvey survivors to file a National Flood Insurance Policy Proof of Loss claim is drawing to a close.

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George Garza
The Vidorian

The word is that FEMA buyout of flood-damaged home in Orange County (outside of any city limits) is possible. However, who gets bought out and how much they get is very much in the air.

Last week, Orange County sponsored an informational meeting on buyouts, acquisitions and home elevations at the Orange County Convention and Expo Center for Orange County homeowners who are interested in having their flood-damaged home bought by the County.

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By George Garza

The cost that the United States Department of Agriculture reimburses public schools for free and reduced price student meals at all public schools is $2.92 per meal. In order for the Vidor I.S.D. to be in compliance with the U.S.D.A.’s equity by the year 2020, the school district will need to increase the cost of full paid school lunches by $1.22 for school lunches at the elementary school cafeterias in the coming school year and by $1.02 for full paid school lunches at the secondary school cafeterias in the coming school year. This would still leave a gap of $0.67 in elementary campus prices and a gap of $0.57 in secondary school lunch prices to be made up for in the 2020-2021 school year.

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By George Garza

Orange County held its first public meeting on the FEMA Buyout Program and the TXGLO/HUD Acquisition Program on Tuesday night. The meeting, held in the ballroom of the Orange County Convention and Expo Center, was attended by perhaps as many as 150 families who are interested in having their Hurricane Harvey flooded homes bought out by the County. The featured speaker at the buyout meeting was Phil Hampsten, an Austin, TX consultant who specializes in federally funded disaster buyouts, acquisitions and elevation programs. Joel Ardoin, Orange County’s Emergency Management Coordinator, started the meeting out by giving a brief overview of the three federal hazard mitigation programs.

The Orange County Hurricane Harvey Storm Debris Pickup mission is finally coming to an end. Since the storm debris pickup mission began on September 13, 2013, Orange County has collected 382,178 cubic yards of verified storm debris. At the end of June of this year the county’s storm debris pickup contractor, AshBritt conducted its last countywide sweep of all county roads, picking up most of the remaining storm debris.

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Attention tax delinquents who are late on or haven’t paid any of your business property taxes! Your tax delinquency is about to be exposed to your customers, on the front page, on new media web sites and perhaps even on-the-air on the local nightly newscast.

The delinquent tax law firm hired by the local taxing entities announced on Monday that they have begun the process of preparing a partial list of the delinquent taxpayers for purposes of publishing in the local media. The list will be randomly generated from all delinquent tax accounts across Orange County and will not be based upon dollar amounts. The list will be compiled from public information and will include the name of the assessed party and the total amount owed on their property. Once compiled, the list will be submitted to local news organizations so that the names can be published. The law firm indicated that there were several reasons for publishing this public information.

by Randall Luker

The City of Vidor is disputing the formula used by the Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission to determine how Hurricane Harvey relief funding will be distributed to local governments to repair infrastructure damage due to flooding and buyout repetitive flood properties.

Under the proposed plan, Vidor was determined to have only about 30 percent damage and would receive about $3 million dollars. For comparison, Pinehurst and West Orange would receive about twice that much each.

The Vidor Police Department conducted a special warrant roundup last week and netted six violators, including one who had passed away.

According to Vidor Police Chief Rod Carroll, On Wednesday evening, July 12, 2018, the Vidor Police Department, the Orange County ESD #1 Fire Marshalls and the Orange County Probation Office initiated a warrant round up of probationers that were wanted for probation violations.

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George Garza
The Vidorian

The Crossroads Shopping Center in the 800 block of North Main Street was evacuated for about an hour on Wednesday afternoon when somebody noticed a suspicious looking package lying atop a public garbage receptacle and reported it to police.

“At approximately 3:45 p.m. this afternoon, the Vidor Police Department received a call about a suspicious package at the Crossroads Shopping Center,” said Vidor Police Chief Rod Carroll shortly after the all clear was given. “Responding officers found the package. It looked suspicious with a battery pack on it.”

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