Town Council

The Odessa Town Council met Monday evening with two members of the town’s engineering firm providing reports. Steven Nelson reported that the downtown street project is finished except for the intersection of Division and First Avenue area where a water pipe with no shutoff had been found. Public works director Rod Webster plans to have the town crew work on sealing off the pipe and finishing whatever work remains. Repeated attempts to find the source of the water coming through the pipe have been unsuccessful, said Webster.

Nelson also reported that plans to realign the hospital parking area, as well as repairing of Third Avenue between the hospital and the school are progressing. The hospital administration has provided a letter of support for the project.

Money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency should also be forthcoming, with decisions on amounts to be awarded expected within the next two to three weeks. The harsh winter and resulting frost heave damage have led to federal intervention for many northwest communities. Nelson will inform council as soon as decisions are made. It is also possible that the Transportation Improvement Board will contribute another 10 percent toward the 12.5 percent match the town must pay as its portion of the street repairs planned.

The request for proposals for the hospital parking lot and Third Avenue project received only one bid and that was from Century West Engineering, the town’s contracted engineering firm. Council approved their proposal.

Kurt Addicott of the Century West aviation office was also on hand to update the council on efforts to make improvements to the Odessa airport. He was given requested documentation by airport manager Stan Dammel and other documents by Mayor Lois Hubbard that should pave the way for awarding of an FAA grant for the work to be done.

Other steps taken by the council were to appoint council member Bill Crossley as the mayor pro tem for the next six-month period and to discuss complaints from citizens about various matters, including the dump station for RVs that is apparently not located on town property. The Odessa Chamber wished to publicize its availability, but several concerns have been raised: First of all, if it is located on private property, the town and Chamber may have to make other arrangements. Webster said he does not want the dump station feeding into the water treatment plant because of the chemicals used in RV waste tanks. So much work remains to be done before the issues are resolved.

In the absence of fire chief Don Strebeck, police chief Tom Clark reported that the department had responded to several fires over the past few days and that hydrant flushing was to take place Thursday at 5 p.m.

Clark also reported that he has requested that the Odessa Healthcare Foundation purchase an Automated External Defibrillator for the police department. He plans to offer a public demonstration of such a device at Wednesday evening’s safety event and bike rodeo.

In the public works report, Webster said that the automated alarms for the sewer system have been going off at all hours of the day and night when there is actually no problem. By the time the responsible crew member goes to check the system, the computer tells him that there are currently no alarms. Webster says the computer systems are 18 years old and need to be replaced. He said he would be soliciting bids from at least two providers of such equipment. The council can expect to add another $10,000 outlay to their budget considerations.

On that same note, town clerk Gail Kiesz urged council members to begin discussing the budget for next year, so they will have plenty of time to evaluate and prioritize spending.