ORANGE COUNTY, Texas — First responders and school district officials are bracing for the impact of the Chevron Phillips expansion project in Orange County.
Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC announced November 2022 that it has selected a site in Orange County for an "integrated polymers" facility in partnership with QatarEnergy.
Orange County Judge John Gothia says workers have started building 800 new homes. Those homes could mean 800 new families moving in.
Orange Fire Chief John Bilbo believes more traffic on the roads will unfortunately mean more crashes.
"Just traffic, the kind of traffic that Orange is about to see, experience is something we've never experienced," he said. "It's just going to be more time on the scene for us, but we'll respond and we're fully capable."
Bilbo says even with the uptick in calls, the Orange Fire Department's "four-minute response" time to neighborhoods won't change.
"Two of the ones that are being built is in the city limits. One is just outside the limits. They're in close proximity to our Fire Station 2 in Little Cypress," Bilbo said.
While firefighters are saving lives, Little Cypress-Mauriceville Consolidated Independent School District administrators are ready to welcome new students.
Superintendent Stacey Brister says they could use empty classrooms to easily take in about 500 students spread across the district.
"We have a lot of flex space right now that we could utilize if we have to. I would say Little Cypress Elementary is the tightest as far as room availability," Brister says.
Brister says more students would mean more money for day-to-day operations.
"The more you have students and if they come to school and their attendance it would help you support electricity and the furnishings," she said.
Chief Bilbo says the department will be looking to build a new station in the next five years and hire at least nine new firefighters.