Two workshops were held Thursday by the Commissioners Court to discuss drainage in Orange County. During the almost seven hours combined about 70 citizens voiced their concerns of the drainage in their neighborhoods.
Many of the comments were from the same areas where whole neighborhoods flooded. Some of the most frequently identified areas were in the Twin Lakes addition and Terry Estates of Orangefield, East Susan Circle and Elsie Street in Bridge City, the Lakeside area of Vidor, and residences north of Interstate 10 in Orange.
Representatives from the Orange County Road and Bridge, the Orange County Drainage District, TxDOT, Parks and Wildlife, and all the municipalities in the county attended the two workshops. The representatives exchanged names and phone numbers with the citizens promising they would get together later to address the drainage issues that were brought up during the workshop.
The head of the Orange County Drainage District Don Carona spoke with many of the citizens and promises that his office will continue to work to rectify situations that were brought to his attention Thursday. Carona said, “We’re going to do everything we can to fix the drainage problem.” He assured the drainage district would work together with all the other entities to fix the problem.
The workshops were organized by County Judge Dean Crooks. The goal was to identify problem areas and have them addressed. Crooks is looking forward to seeing the drainage improving in the coming months. “What if 50 percent of everything we talked about in these two meetings was repaired within six months, imagine the difference the drainage would be,” Crooks concluded.
Everyone attending the workshops was given the opportunity to speak, but not all of them did. Over 200 people attended the meetings, the first in the Commissioners Courtroom at the Courthouse and the evening workshop was held at the Convention and Expo Center.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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