The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Keep Orange County Beautiful presented a check in the amount of $2,500 Tuesday night at the regular meeting of the Pinehurst City Council.

The funds are in support of the city’s beautification project to plant crepe myrtles trees along the main streets in Pinehurst. For instance, crepe myrtles will be planted along the curbs and sidewalks on Strickland Drive.

The Texas Department of Transportation approved the item. Later plans involve planting crepe myrtles along MLK Drive.

A press release from the organization read because of the city’s small size and limited income the full beautification project will be completed over several years. However, the donation from KOCB will kick-start the program for Pinehurst and cover a major portion of the costs for Phase I — placing crepe myrtles trees for one mile along both sides of Strickland Drive.

“It should be noted that this donation was made possible in part by a generous donation from David Brown and Dennis Davis. David Brown was a son of Mr. Edgar Brown Jr. (who incorporated and formed the city). David and Dennis were early members of Keep Orange County Beautiful and instrumental in its early success,” the press release read.

The council appointed Jerome Hadnot as interim fire chief of the Pinehurst Volunteer Fire Department. Fire Chief Mike Simon is training firefighters for three months in the Republic of South Africa. He may go to Australia next to work.

City Administrator Joe Parkhurst reported to the council grants were received to start water and sewer projects in the city. Martin and Lark Streets will be the first to received new sewer lines. The bridge heading to Foskey Veterinary Clinic will be replaced in the near future.

Other grants will be applied to replace several lift stations that were damaged by saltwater intrusion from Hurricane Ike.

Parkhurst said some of the lift stations are operating by a single thread and the city had to buy new pumps to keep the system in operation.