Town Council

Continued from last week

With the resignation of Bill Crossley from his councilman position to assume the duties of mayor, the council now has an opening for a new member. Odessa residents who may be interested in serving are asked to send a letter of interest to the clerk’s office by February 12 (see also the announcement in the classified section of the January 11 issue of The Record).

Councilman Kelly Watkins was approved by the other council members to serve as the mayor pro tem in the mayor’s absence.

Town fire chief Don Strebeck reported that Clayton D. Gordon, whose home was destroyed by fire on Christmas night, had hired a fire investigator to determine the actual cause of the fire. Gordon and his wife were not at home but had left a pellet stove burning at a low heat with neighbors checking on it from time to time. They also had left a laptop computer plugged in to charge on a table top.

The fire investigator’s report said that the lithium-ion battery that powered the laptop had exploded, with sparks igniting the nearby sofa and the table on which the laptop sat. He also said that he estimated the temperature inside the home to have reached approximately 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Strebeck said that one of the few items salvaged from the home included a U.S. flag that had belonged to Gordon’s father. It was still folded into a triangle and stored in a glass-topped case. The flag was unscathed.

Gordon has asked for approval to live in a travel trailer on his property while the insurance company finishes its work and the house can be torn down and replaced by a modular home or something similar. The council approved his request.

Police chief Tom Clark said he has received a grant from the Association of Washington Cities for nearly $5,000 with which he plans to buy two new radios for the Odessa patrol cars.