Town Council

Bill Crossley was sworn in as Odessa's newest mayor Monday evening at the regularly scheduled town council meeting. Crossley's first order of business was to resign his council seat, leaving a vacancy there. After that he was given the oath of office by town clerk Gail Kiesz. Next, new council member Vicky Iverson and incumbents Kelly Watkins and Landon Lobe were also sworn in by Kiesz.

Kurt Addicott with Century West Engineering in Snohomish attended the meeting to report on the status of the work scheduled for the Odessa Municipal Airport. He said the design work was about 30 percent complete and that a compliance review was currently under way. He gave each council member a summary of the work performed to date.

The preferred design option is for the airport runway to undergo crack sealing or slurry sealing, while at the same time addressing some necessary compliance items. Grading and filling will be required at the sides of the runway in certain areas. The standard runway width for a Group I airport (which Odessa's is) is 60 feet. Odessa's runway spans 57-58 feet along most of its length, which may be acceptable to leave as is. A July 1, 2018 start date is anticipated for commencing the airport work.

Steve Nelson of Century West Engineering in Spokane was also at the meeting, "just to see the swearing in of the new mayor," as he said. However, he also reported that the Transportation Improvement Board may help out financially with the cost of moving an airport road that is in the wrong location. He will find out more at meetings scheduled to take place in the near future.

Continued next week