Airport terminal project gets going

County commissioners named Kentucky-based GRW Engineers Inc. as architect for a $1.2 million county airport terminal project on Monday.

Texas Department of Transportation's Aviation Division will pay for a little less than half of the project with about $500,000 in grant funds, and the county will have to come up with the rest. Commissioner Barbara Graff has said TxDOT Aviation also approved a $5.83 million grant for Schlemeyer Field runway improvements.

That's an 80/20 percent match, with the county having to chip in about $508,000.

County Project Manager Fred Crawford said GRW should have initial terminal plans ready in about nine months.

Land-based traffic will also see some changes as speed limit signs start popping up along some heavily trafficked county roads soon.

Commissioner Freddie Gardner said he's been getting complaints from constituents about people speeding around Mockingbird, FM 1936, 65th Street and West Golder Avenue.

"Without speed limit signs, people say ‘Well I don't know what the speed limit is so I've been driving 40 or 50 miles an hour through there'," Gardner said.

Commissioners also approved an agreement with Community Education Centers Inc., formerly Civigenics, for the amount of money the county gets paid for housing prisoners in the courthouse jail. The private jail operator will have to shell out $4.75 per prisoner per day under the new contract.

Repair work on plumbing in the county courthouse has forced the management firm to relocate prisoners elsewhere. CEC pays the county for space in the courthouse daily depending on how many prisoners are housed there, so the company had asked for a 40 percent reduction in its rent payment to make up for having to shuffle inmates around.

Normally the county collects about $600,000 a year from CEC, county auditor David Austin has said. Commissioners were asking the jail-management company to fork over $5 per inmate instead of the $6.87 it normally pays.   

Commissioners also approved:

>> A report on the 2008 inventory. About $1,500 worth of county property was found missing and commissioners voted to declare it as surplus, effectively wiping it off the books.

>> Declaring an ECO-Junior machine as surplus and approve the trade in of an RTI, ECO-Junior disc repair machine.

>> A $5,000 donation from Junior League of Odessa and the Permian Basin chapter of Hearing Loss Association of America for new library books.

>> Insurance claims for small claims.

>> A $35,000 office supplies proposal.

>> A $31,260 White-Pool House retaining wall replacement proposal.

>> Purchasing a standard cab three-quarter ton long bed work pickup, standard cab half-ton long bed pickup, a crew cab three-quarter ton long bed work pickup, a 15-passenger van and a cargo van for $88,000.

>> The 2009-'10 general victims assistance grant application and budget.

>> Approving Annex P of the Hazard Mitigation Plan and approving the Hazard Mitigation Team list to participate with a consultant, as necessary, to develop a hazard mitigation plan for Odessa, Goldsmith and Ector County.

>> A $3,487 agreement with Oncor Delivery for construction of utilities for the new West Side Senior Center.

>> Revisions of the vehicle usage policy as it applies to the driver incident review process. 

>> Transferring $150 from data processing supplies to office supplies.

>> Several line item transfers.

>> The accounts payable fund requirements report for December.