Government - page 17

West Orange is offering its citizens the opportunity to enhance the quality of life of their current and future residents to help provide resources for growth and the creation of jobs for their residents.

On November 7, 2023, West Orange citizens will have an opportunity to support an election to enhance the future of West Orange by supporting a referendum to provide for establishing an Economic Development Corporation that helps to create jobs, infrastructure improvements, neighborhood enhancements, and overall quality of life improvements.

The creation of this Corporation does not affect residents’ property taxes in any way but will help West Orange grow and be more attractive to future businesses and area improvements.

If passed, the Economic Development Corporation would be created and made up of seven citizens who would be in charge of reviewing projects and proposals.

Early voting begins October 23, 2023, and will be considered with the state and County elections.

Due to the recent rainfall and a reduction in the fire danger index, Orange County Judge John Gothia is lifting the burn ban immediately for Orange County.

Judge Gothia is still asking County residents to exercise caution with any outdoor burning activity.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, commonly known as FEMA, will conduct a nationwide test of the National Emergency Alert System. It will be done on Wednesday, October 4, 2023, and will begin at 1:20 p.m. Central time.

FEMA officials say the emergency test message will go to all cell phones, as well as television stations and radio stations.

According to FEMA, it will be along the same lines as the tests of the regular local Emergency Alert System, formerly known as the Emergency Broadcast System.

This will be the seventh test of the National Emergency Alert System, the first one having been conducted in November 2011.

STAN is the Southeast Texas Alerting Network which provides messaging and notifications system that informs Southeast Texas residents informed about emergencies and other important events for residents in Jefferson, Orange, Hardin, and Jasper Counties.

Once registered, residents will receive notifications about emergencies, industry, or weather events occurring in Southeast Texas. In the event of an emergency, STAN will call residential and commercial telephones in the affected areas. STAN uses geographic calling zones and is able to alert specific areas that are affected by an emergency.

Since you’re not always at home, you can register to make sure you receive notifications no matter where you are. That way, if you’re at work and something happens near your home, you’ll know about it. Register here to sign up for cell phone notifications via voice or text or to sign up for email notifications. You can also sign up to receive outreach messages.

Local emergency management uses STAN to send two types of messages to the public:

• Emergency messages: In the case of an event that warrants public action, local emergency management can send emergency messages describing what actions need to be taken in response to the emergency.
• Outreach messages: Additionally, emergency management uses STAN to send local notifications, or outreach messages, to the community, such as water outages, street closures or traffic notices.

The STAN system is transitioning the regional mass notification system to Everbridge and will require residents to re-register for the STAN System. The system will switch over September 25, 2023.

Residents can go here to register. The process takes just a few minutes to complete. For more information, download this PDF.

STAN is sponsored by the Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission, the Industry of Southeast Texas, local media and the Local Emergency Planning Committees of Jefferson, Orange, Hardin and Jasper Counties.

The City of Orange Recreation Center has updated the schedule to include Indoor Pickleball and Indoor Soccer.

Indoor Pickleball will be offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Indoor Soccer will be offered on Thursdays from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Please see their Facebook page for more info.