Kiesz shadows town clerk

As the Monday night meeting of the Odessa Town Council was working its way toward a late-night session on the budget for the new year, Mayor Doug Plinski showed the Council and guests a slide show of many of the town’s properties and their states of repair and/or disrepair, as the case may be. Many were “gifts” made to the town over the years by well-meaning citizens and organizations, but they have ultimately become rather serious liabilities at this point in time.

Assets vs. liabilities

Plinski’s presentation was intended to show council members and guests just how much the maintenance and upkeep entails for these many assets. The town owns the Community Center, the Old Town Hall, the Public Works building, the police station, Reiman Park and its associated Kiddie Park and volleyball area, the Odessa Aquatic Recreation Center, the Odessa Historisches Museum and St. Matthew’s Historic Church and the Odessa Cemetery, to name just the most visible ones.

And how many of these facilities actually pay their own way? Just one, as it turns out. The Odessa Historical Society’s fundraising efforts pay for most of the upkeep on the museum properties. Everything else, even the pool, despite the laudable efforts of the very energetic and engaged Friends of the Pool, does not come close to paying for all of the labor and materials needed to keep it safe and functional. As for the Old Town Hall, its problems are apparent to anyone just passing by. It will require a major renovation effort to bring it up to code, or it will likely have to be razed at some not-too-distant time in the future.

So council members must now try to figure out how to meet all of the community’s wants and needs with the limited funds at its disposal.

New face in clerk’s office

Gail Kiesz of rural Odessa was introduced to the council as the newest employee of the town clerk’s office. She will be learning the duties of the office as she shadows soon-to-be-retired town clerk Linda Burghard.

Public input

Odessa homeowner Marty Pfeifer attended the Monday meeting hoping to get answers to several pages worth of questions about the town sewer system. Pfeifer’s was one of the homes that suffered a backup of water and sewage into basements over the Deutsches Fest weekend in the southwest part of town. For several of those homeowners, Pfeifer included, this was not the first such incident to occur since the sewer system was installed, and the homeowners affected are understandably frustrated.

Since many of the questions would have required the looking up of dates and facts in the town records, and because the council was already facing a lengthy meeting on the budget, Pfeifer was requested to submit his questions to the clerk’s office during business hours.

Public works

Following the resignation of Jerry Monroe as public works director, who has taken a better-paying position west of the Cascades, Rod Webster will move up into the director’s slot. Webster reported that public works employee Jim Williams was attending grinder pump training. He said that council member Lynn Schmidt was also planning to take the training in order to have a better understanding of the problems involved with upkeep of the sewer system.

Schmidt had also taken steps to help out a short-handed public works department by compiling a list of steps to be taken when sewer system alarms go off. These checklists would be placed at the lift stations and distributed elsewhere as needed.

Also jumping in to help out last week was the mayor himself, who assisted Webster in emptying the yard waste dumpsters throughout the town while Williams was away at his training session.

Mayor’s report

Plinski said he will be meeting with the Dept. of Ecology regarding the town’s six-year water plan in hopes of negotiating more affordable ways for the town to remain compliant. Many requirements involve testing that costs money the town does not have.

The airport project involving the expanded runway is moving forward very slowly but is making progress.