The City of Orange will hold its municipal election on Saturday, May 7, as are other cities and school districts in the county are doing. The City Council approved the election being held that day during its meeting on Tuesday.

There will be early voting conducted for the election Monday, April 25, through Friday, April 29, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Two additional days of early voting will be done Monday, May 2, through Tuesday, May 3, between the hours of 7:00 AM to 7:00PM.

Early voting locations for the municipal election will be the Orange Public Library at 220 N. 5th Street in Orange, the Mauriceville Community Center located at 7441 Cohenour Road, the Raymond Gould Community Center in Vidor at 385 Claiborne, and the Orange County Airport located at 2640 South Highway 87. Citizens may vote early at any of those locations.

Election day, May 7, the polls will be open from 7:00 AM until 7:00 PM. Voters will cast their ballots at the location according to their Orange County Precinct Voting Box, the precinct can be found on their voter registration certificate.

There will be three positions on the ballot for seats on the City Council in Orange. Single Member District 2 currently held by Brad Childs, Single Member District 4 occupied by Mary McKenna, and At-Large Place 5 with Caroline Hennigan holding that seat at present.

If any of the three elections warrant it a Run-Off Election will be held. The council approved Saturday, June 25, as the date of the Run-Off Election if necessary.

The City Council approved on final reading an ordinance amending the Code of Ordinances pertaining to POD-type containers and Conex-type shipping containers. The new ordinance will allow one POD type structure per residence in certain zoned areas if there is damage to the primary structure in a declared disaster area. The ordinance prohibits all Conex shipping containers in areas zoned residential and some areas zoned commercial.

At the recommendation of the Planning and Zoning Commission the council approved another ordinance regulating the installation of street lights in subdivisions. The ordinance will change the requirement for street light locations to more than 400 feet between each of them. Developers of the subdivisions will be responsible for installing the street lights, not the city. Properties served by the street lights will not have their valuation increased by one dollar per foot for tax purposes.

The regulation on fire hydrants installation was also approved following a recommendation by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The new requirement is all areas of the subdivision are within 500 feet of a fire hydrant replacing the old standard that the hydrants were 750 feet apart.

Ashbritt was approved to work with the City of Orange for pre-storm disaster recovery services and Tetra Tech was approved for disaster recovery monitoring services. Traylor and Associates were approved as a grant writer/administrator to assist the city with its application for a Hazard Mitigation Grant with the Texas Division of Emergency Management for Hurricane Harvey.

The meeting began with the recognition of the passing of Essie Bellfield who was the first Black mayor of Orange and the only female mayor of the city. All of the council members had comments honoring Bellfield during the time for the City Council Report at the close of the meeting.