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ODESSA - The renovation of the Odessa Community Center was completed in time for 2023 Deutschesfest, although a few details remain to be finished up before the town signs off on the project. An open house was held Friday, Sept. 29, affording the public an opportunity to visit the facility and view all the work that had been done. The project was funded through a grant offered by the Washington State Department of Commerce. Town clerk Meri Jane Bohn and Steve Nelson of...

ODESSA - At town council's Sept. 11 meeting, Mayor Bill Crossley administered the oath of office to new police chief: 43-year-old Ericka Rose. In accepting the job of chief, she fulfills a lifelong dream of leading her own department. She has known since childhood that she wanted to become a police officer and focused on that goal throughout high school and college and on into the early years of married life. Her husband, Brandon Rose, also in law enforcement, works as a...

ODESSA – In early July, 34 members of Odessa High School's Future Business Leaders of America chapter competed in several categories at the 2022 National Leadership Conference in Chicago, where more than 15,000 students competed in approximately 100 events. Four Odessa teams of three or four students each brought home national awards. Odessa competed in 10 events and made it to the finals in four. All four placed in the top 10. The Partnership-with-a-Business team of Emily S...

ODESSA – The CEO of Odessa Memorial Healthcare Center was fired after only a year on the job. During a special June 9 meeting, hospital directors voted unanimously to immediately terminate CEO John Serle's contract. During the meeting, the board convened in an executive session lasting nearly an hour before returning to the public forum. The board then heard a motion and second, and voted unanimously to end Serle's employment without cause. Serle replaced interim CEO Emmett Sc...

ODESSA – The Odessa women's softball team had a bye week in their schedule a few weeks ago and decided to hold a Jack & Jill game with spouses, family and friends during that week. According to team member Paige Smith, the game was so much fun, the team thought it would be fun to do another Jack & Jill game. Smith and her teammates planned the second Jack & Jill game for last weekend, followed by a BBQ afterwards with everyone bringing a side dish. By all accounts, the e...

ODESSA – The kids' fishing derby held Saturday morning, June 11, on private property at Schafer's pond south of Odessa was sponsored by the Crab Creek Alliance, the second event held this year by this newly organized Odessa non-profit. Many contributors to the event provided fishing poles for those who did not have them (although most brought their own), as well as everything from nightcrawlers for bait, hand-tied fishing flies by Rennie Tassell of Rosalia, and even c...

ODESSA–The Tiger baseball team defeated the Sunnyside Christian team last Wednesday, May 11, by a score of 16-6 and the Riverside Christian team this Tuesday, May 17, by a score of 9-4 to move on to the state tournament. The next game for the Tigers will be on Saturday against #1 seed DeSales at Borleske Stadium in Walla Walla beginning at 10 a.m. That game is a loser-out game. The winner will advance to play the winner of the Liberty Christian vs. Crosspoint game later the sa...
HARRINGTON – Several students, teachers and community members signed up to speak at the Wednesday, May 25 meeting of the school board. All of them expressed disappointment and concern about the decision reached at the previous meeting for the Harrington School District to join the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague sports program during the 2022-23 school year. Many said that the decision was rushed and that the community had too little time to absorb the proposal and all of its ramifications. One person said that a survey filled out by...

ODESSA – The Odessa High School girls' team brought home the fourth-place trophy from the state track and field meet held May 26-28 at Eastern Washington University in Cheney. Only a sophomore, Hayden Schuh, daughter of head coach Travis Schuh, had a stellar day in field events and races, placing first in the 100-meter hurdles, second in the 300-meter hurdles, second in the javelin, fifth as part of the 4x200 relay team and sixth as part of the 4x100 relay team. All of the g...
DAVENPORT – The recent death of Deputy Raymond "Riami" Hayden of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office came as a real blow to his family, colleagues and community. Although his time with the Sheriff's Office was brief, he made a lasting impression on those around him. He became a Lincoln County deputy in September of 2020. In early 2021, he began experiencing symptoms that ultimately were diagnosed as resulting from a brain tumor. Multiple surgeries and various treatment attempts were unsuccessful. Throughout his treatment, h...

LIBERTY LAKE – Seven Odessa track and field athletes are headed to the state 1B meet Thursday through Saturday at Eastern Washington University in Cheney. They qualified for state during the 1B District 6/7/9 Championships on May 20-21 at Ridgeline High School. Mason Wright is the only local boy to qualify for state. Hayden Schuh, Ashlyn Neilsen, Lexi Eden, Lily Starkel, Reegan Carstensen and Kathryn Burnett all qualified in the girls competition. Wright qualified in the 3...
WALLA WALLA – The Odessa Tigers boys baseball season came to an end Saturday, May 21, with a 10-1 loss to the DeSales Fighting Irish. The No. 8-ranked Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but were unable to score after that. DeSales, the No. 1-seed, tied the game in the second and kept adding runs over the next three innings. Hayden Miller hit two singles, one of which resulted in the Tigers’ only run. Collin Martin also hit a single. Starting pitcher Collin Martin went three-and-a-third innings before being rel...

ODESSA–The Tiger baseball team defeated the Sunnyside Christian team last Wednesday, May 11, by a score of 16-6 and the Riverside Christian team this Tuesday, May 17, by a score of 9-4 to move on to the state tournament. The next game for the Tigers will be on Saturday against #1 seed DeSales at Borleske Stadium in Walla Walla beginning at 10 a.m. That game is a loser-out game. The winner will advance to play the winner of the Liberty Christian vs. Crosspoint game later the sa...
HARRINGTON – A special meeting of the school board was held Monday, May 9, in the high school library to decide whether or not to accept an offer from the combined Lind-Ritzville/Sprague sports organization to join them for a year-long trial period that would allow more Harrington high-school athletes to participate in sports. Following discussion that lasted an hour and a half, the board voted 3-2 to accept the proposal. Board chair Shelly Quigley ran the meeting of the full board, which also included Darren Mattozzi, J...

ODESSA – The Tigers defeated the Northport Mustangs 7-6 Monday, May 9, at home in Odessa to make it into the next round of playoffs on Wednesday. After a 1-1 first inning, the Tigers added run in the second, fourth and sixth, while the Mustangs had a five-run sixth inning to tie things up. The game-winning run came in the seventh, when freshman Corbyn Neilsen was hit by a pitch to get on first base. After stealing second, then advancing to third on an error by the catcher, N...

ODESSA – Last Saturday, April 30, the town celebrated its 120th year of existence in conjunction with other activities held as part of the town's annual Spring Fling events. Visitors and residents were also drawn to the quilt show in the high school gym put on by the Odessa Quilt Club, to yard sales taking place all over the town, to vendors of antiques and handcrafted items selling their wares on Division Street, which was closed to through traffic and also held displays of a...

ODESSA – On April 20, Jamie Nelson, the K-12 principal at the Odessa School District, accepted her award as the FBLA Administrator of the Year for the state of Washington at the FBLA leadership conference held in Spokane. Emily Scrupps, president of the Odessa High School chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America, presented the award to Nelson for her support of the local chapter. Odessa's FBLA chapter advisor Terri King wrote the nomination letter submitted to the s...

ODESSA – The local chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America was named the Outstanding Chapter of the Year for Washington at the state FBLA leadership conference held in Spokane last week. Area schools that also attended were Harrington, Davenport and Reardan. This was the first live state business leadership conference in two years, since the Covid pandemic forced schools to attend virtual conferences online. Today's seniors were freshmen at the last live c...

ODESSA – The Tigers baseball team went 1-1 in doubleheaders against both Wilbur-Creston and ACH last week. Game 1 against the Wildcats in Wilbur on April 19 was a 5-3 victory for the Tigers. Collin Martin was the starting pitcher and went six innings, giving up three runs on three hits and striking out 12. Nathan Carstensen was three for four at the plate, hitting two singles and a double. He also relieved Martin on the mound to close out the final inning. Game 2 had the oppos...
ODESSA--The Chamber of Commerce met for their regular noon meeting on April 12 at the Odessa Golf and RV clubhouse. Secretary pro tem Laura Estes reports that the preliminary results from the Stumpjumpers’ Desert 100 weekend showed nearly double profits from the last held race year in 2019. Planning is said to be underway for having greater participation by vendors from Odessa and for ways to encourage and facilitate shopping in Odessa for those attending the event. Additional signage pointing to Odessa and paper handouts lis...

AIRWAY HEIGHTS–The Eastern Washington University Alumni Association held a gala awards ceremony last Friday, April 15, at Northern Quest Casino. This annual event honors EWU alums who have achieved success in various walks of life after having graduated from the university. This year the top award, the Lifetime Achievement Award, went to a married couple, both of whom are EWU alumni currently residing in Spokane. Jon Heimbigner is well known to most Odessa area readers as a 1...

ODESSA – Greg Luiten, manager of the Grange Supply Company of Odessa-Harrington worked with the Old Town Hall Rejuvenation Society to submit a grant application in February to Seeds for Stewardship, a competitive grant program that matches funds for projects that develop the next generation of ag leaders, improve ag safety and enhance the vitality of a community. Cenex Harvest States (CHS) has announced a contribution of $3,123 to the Old Town Hall Rejuvenation Society as a m...

The sons of HaLee and Colley Walter of Odessa joined the racing action last Saturday out at the Desert-100 campsite. Tucker and Sawyer raced in the poker run, while younger brothers Hank and Hudson participated in the kids' races. Hudson Walter placed fourth in the 9/10-year-old age group and Hank placed 14th out of 61 kids in the eight-and-under group. The day was blustery, and the dirt was swirling through the campsite and the racecourses. But rain or shine or dust or...
DEER PARK – The Glen Wolf Invitational track and field meet was held at Deer Park on Friday, April 1. The Odessa Tigers competed well. The girls’ team finished in third place, competing against some much larger schools. The boys’ team struggled and ended up tying for 20th place with Garfield-Palouse. The schools taking part in the meet were Jenkins HS (Chewelah), Columbia (Hunters), Deer Park, Garfield Palouse, Kettle Falls, Liberty (Spangle), Lind-Ritzville, Logos HS (Moscow, Idaho), Mary Walker (Springdale), NW Christian (C...

ODESSA – Kay Gentry is the Odessa Clinic's newest medical provider. She is a nationally certified family nurse practitioner and comes to Odessa most recently from the New Health Program in Chewelah, Washington. Originally from Taiwan, Gentry obtained her bachelor of science degree from Indiana State University in 1992. She completed an Accelerated Master's in Nursing Pathway program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2016, then spent about a year at the Northwest G...