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The Record TheRecordLive.com
Vol. 58 No. 60
Distributed FREE To The Citizens of Bridge City and Orangefield
Week of Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Bridge City Farmers Market finds its groove “It kind of blew up. It took off and this is where we’re at.” It’s at Bridge City Park on West Roundbunch Road, be-
tween the Water Park and Little League diamonds, from 8 a.m. through 11 a.m. each Saturday during the summer.
“We’re doing it for the summer months, as long as we BC FARMERS Page 3A
Finley murder still unsolved
The Bridge City Farmers Market, open from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturdays at Bridge City Park, offering fresh produce and homemade crafts and sweets, has been a welcome addition. RECORD PHOTO: Dave Rogers
Dave Rogers
For The Record
The people of Bridge City love fresh produce, proving it last Saturday when a steady flow of customers ignored early morning thunderstorms and showed up to shop at the new Bridge City Farmers Market. “I had people come out in the rain with lightning pop-
ping everywhere,” Marian Pepper, the organizer of the weekly market said. “These people are diehards. They want their vegetables.” Pepper wasn’t surprised. Some quick research had told her so. “The community wanted it,” she said when asked why she decided to organize a farmers market in her hometown.
“I have a small little farm that I do. People ask me if I sell my stuff. I don’t grow enough for that, but I’m thinking, there has to be other people like me out there that grow. “I said, ‘Let’s ask on Facebook if anyone might be interested in having a farmers market and if there would be any vendors interested in participating.’
Health costs worry local government Dave Rogers
For The Record
Collective bargaining sessions are rarely for the weak of heart and Monday, the city’s chief negotiator dropped a nightmare scenario into talks with Orange firemen. Larry Watts of League City listened intently as representatives for the International Association of Firefighters asked for a 6 percent raise.
“We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
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Then he told them because of tremendous increases in healthcare insurance costs and uncertainty over laws that may be passed this summer by the Texas Legislature, the city pie could be much smaller than normal. It’s a situation faced by most Texas governments, including Orange County and its school districts. Schools are awaiting the finalization of state funding. “As far as funding, it’s a wait and see mode for us,” Todd Lintzen, Bridge City superintendent, says. “We know they’ve collected taxes for education; they’ve got to fund us. But the question is which shifts they’re going to make with funding.” Watts, seated between Orange city manager Shawn Oubre and assistant city manager Jay Trahan, revealed the city was facing a 36 percent hike in healthcare insurance – an increased cost of $969,000. That could bring into play a rollback election, Oubre said, if the Legislature passes Senate Bill 2. That bill would require counties, cities and schools to let taxpayers vote on any tax increases of 5 percent. Current law allows taxpayers to petition for a vote if the increases top 8 percent. “I didn’t think the rollback [SB2] would affect us, until we got that insurance number back,” Oubre said. He and Watts also mentioned Senate Bill 715, which could resurface in the special section. As originally written, the bill would take away cities’ power to annex business or residential property without the landowner’s consent. That would invalidate Or-
ange’s in-lieu-of industrial district taxes with 14 plants, Oubre said. Those payments make up 36 percent of Orange’s general fund. “If that happens,” he said, “there will be a $7 million shortfall.” It’s wait and hope time, but waiting every two years for education funding bills is old hat for Lintzen.
Captain R.O. Enmon of the Orange Police Department displays boxes of case files and evidence key to the Dannarriah Finley abduction, sexual assault and murder case. The 4-year old disappeared on July 4, 2002. RECORD PHOTO: Mark Dunn
Dave Rogers
For The Record
The 15th anniversary of the unsolved murder of 4-year-old Dannarriah Finley is not going unnoticed by the detectives at the Orange Police Department. Tuesday, Capt. Robert Enmon said, “the Dannarriah Finley case is always on our mind.” He added that his office had recently resubmitted old evidence to undergo new DNA lab testing. “We have recently reviewed that case,” Enmon said. “We converted old VHS videos to DVDs to help with the preservation of evidence.
One of the last photographs of 4-year old Dannarriah Finley taken shortly before her disappearance and murder.
We had a team of detectives go over every piece of evidence and confirm the need to retest some evidence. “That evidence has been sent to the state.
“I’m not sure how long it will take but it’s promising that new technology will discover something we couldn’t years ago.” Finley disappeared from her Orange home on 4th Street sometime between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. on July 4, 2002. Area citizens reacted to news of the missing girl by volunteering to help search for the 4-year-old. Helicopters and horses assisted in the search. Four days later, her body was found on Pleasure Island in Port Arthur by a pipeline inspector, wrapped in a bed sheet. She had been sexually asDANNARRIAH Page 3A
County cuts benefits for future hires Dave Rogers
For The Record
Orange County commissioners took a future whack at rapidly rising employee health insurance costs Tuesday by taking a present-day chainsaw to the county’s contributions for future hires. But before they took a bite out of future costs, they sailed through a $5,000 allocation to replace a courtroom’s audio-visual equipment and agreed to dangle $100,000 of hotel occupancy tax funds to hook a fishing tournament with a possible economic benefit of $2 million. By unanimous votes of 5-0, the court voted Tuesday that for employees hiring on after the start of the 2017-18 budget year, on Oct. 1, 2017: that it would continue to pay 100 percent for employee health insurance but contribute nothing toward dependent health insurance premiums. The county pays 40 percent for the 166 current employees who choose dependent health
care. County Judge Stephen Brint Carlton noted that Jefferson County and most area cities had ceased conCarlton tributing for new employees’ dependent and retiree insurance costs. He said his calculations showed the county could save an estimated $33,000 next year with the cut and a total of $47.7 million over the next 28 years. “Everybody is looking for some type of solution because this is getting out of control,” Commissioner Barry Burton said of health insurance costs. Carlton related that an official from an unnamed nearby city – it was Shawn Oubre, city manager for the city of Orange – had mentioned recently that the city’s first attempt to bid for 2017-18 employee insurance had come back with a 36-percent increase.
“Unfortunately, the cost of healthcare is out of control,” Carlton said. “We certainly can’t sustain it to the level we have.” Commissioners next tackled the county’s contribution to health insurance for mid21st century retirees – those who weren’t even hired until at least Oct. 1. Carlton resubmitted a motion he offered in May, that future hires would get no county help on insurance after retirement. Again, the vote was 3-2 against, with only Commissioner Jody Crump going along. Then Burton offered his take, proposing the county pay 100 percent of retirees’ age 60-65 health insurance for new hires who worked for the county at least through the age of 60 and totaled at least 80 for the aggregate of age and years of county employment. At age 65, the future hires would be eligible for Medicare under current laws. The vote was 4-1 in favor,
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with Crump the only no vote. “The retirement portion of that, I just believe it’s an unsustainable expense,” the Precinct 4 commissioner said, explaining his no vote. Ida Schossow, President of the Greater Orange Area Chamber of Commerce, requested $100,000 of hotel occupancy tax money to help entice a national fishing tournament for the spring of 2018. She said the fishing tournament “was a name that cannot be named” until the organization sanctioning the tournament announced its schedule in the fall. “The information we’ve been given is that we can expect an economic return of between $1.1 million and $2.1 million,” Schossow said. While she said economic benefit numbers were still being compiled for the June 1517 Bassmaster Open, Commissioner John Gothia, who was co-chairman of the tournament, guessed its economCOUNTY BUSINESS Page 3A