Council awards hotel/motel funds

Odessa city council members were moving so much money around Tuesday that it could have seemed like a game.

“Is this real money?” Councilman Bill Cleaver asked as he looked up at a screen, showing more than $1.8 million to be allocated to outside agencies that bring visitors to town.

“Yeah, it’s real money,” Mayor Pro Tem James Goates said.

“Just want to make sure,” Cleaver said.

After listening to 21 presentations, council was finally able to put the pieces together to hand out all the money it had from its hotel and motel tax fund, which must be awarded to groups that are considered to put “heads in beds.”

The largest amount went to the Odessa Convention and Visitors Bureau, which got all the $865,232 it had requested for its regular operations.

The convention and visitors bureau sports recruiting department only got a portion of the $100,000 it had asked for because it still has $94,000 left over from money council allotted it to go toward bringing sports tournaments to be played on city fields.

Linda Sweatt, convention and visitors bureau director, said she hadn’t gotten enough applications from events to use all the money allocated.

But some on council questioned whether more could be done.

“Our idea was not just for people to apply to you,” Goates said. “But for you to go out and seek them.”

Councilwoman Barbara Graff asked if the convention and visitors bureau had gone to state coaches’ conventions to try to lure teams to play here.

While Sweatt said her group has done so in the past, it hasn’t for a couple years.

“It costs money to go to those events,” she said. She said the money from council was ineligible to be used for travel for convention and visitors officials.

Some organizations came away with all the money they requested. The Odessa Council for the Arts and Humanities, which helps put on the Hot Summer Nights concert series and this year contributed to bringing poet Maya Angelou to town, got $330,791.

While every agency came away with some funding, some didn’t get all of it. Citing an increased travel and a longer season because of the addition of former International Hockey League teams to their schedule, the Odessa Jackalopes asked for $144,206. Council ended up awarding the team $40,000.

Two other big players at the Ector County Coliseum did better. The Permian Basin Fair received $75,000 of the $80,000 it asked for, while the Sandhills Stock Show and Rodeo took $70,000 of its $75,000 request.

By a 4-1 vote, council approved a lease that will allow the Permian Basin Bicycle Association to use city 95 acres of city property in a caliche pit near the intersection of Eastridge and Billy Hext roads. The bike association plant to build trails for a mountain biking area.

Goates expressed concern over how liability waivers would be collected at the site, as well as how well protected the area was.

Bicycle club member David Ham said the area would be fenced in with locked gates, with club members having keys. He added that the club would make its trails less risky for injuries.

“We will design the track to be challenging but safe,” he said.

In other action, council:
>> Gave second and final approval of a zoning change that will allow Green Eagles Development to build duplexes on 27 lots on Laredo Drive between Fitch and Barrett avenues.
>> Approved an interlocal agreement with Odessa College for the use of $16,080 from a federal grant for OC’s Green Technologies Program.
>> Approved accepting a $6,000 grant for the Odessa Police Department from the Statewide Tobacco Education and Prevention Program.
>> Approved the 2010-2011 budget for the Emergency Communication District of Ector County.
>> Gave second and final approval of making the city’s two remaining one-way streets into two-way streets.
>> Gave second and final approval of abandoning a portion of alley right-of-way in the 300 block of South Texas Avenue.
>> Approved an amendment on the definition of “dependant” on the Family Health Project 2010 plan document.
>> Approved amendments to city code reflecting changes in state law, correcting typographical errors and duplications and updating definitions, names and lists.
>> Approved a proclamation for Houston & Lisa Copeland Insurance Week.
>> Approved reappointing J. Tillapaugh to the historic preservation commission.

Hotel-motel tax fund allocations (with requested amount in parentheses)
>> Black Cultural Council $20,000 ($30,000).
>> Colores Productions/Fiesta West Texas $20,000 ($45,000).
>> Commemorative Air Force $50,000 ($100,000).
>> Convention and Visitors Bureau $865,232 ($865,232).
>> Convention and Visitors sports event recruiting $4,585 ($100,000).
>> County Judges and commissioners conference $15,000 ($15,000).
>> Friends of Ector Theatre $30,000 ($30,000).
>> Heritage Holiday $14,000 ($14,600).
>> Main Street Odessa $75,000 ($78,600).
>> Odessa Council for the Arts and Humanities $330,791 ($330,791).
>> Odessa Jackalopes hockey $40,000 ($144,206).
>> Odessa Student Crime Stoppers $10,000 ($10,000).
>> Parks department - Fall Festival $10,000 ($10,800).
>> Parks Department – Ratliff Ranch golf $60,000 ($80,000).
>> Parks Department – Starbright Village $30,000 ($34,000).
>> Permian Basin Fair & Exposition $75,000 ($80,000).
>> Rho Iota Omega Educational Fund Inc. $15,000 ($40,050).
>> Sandhills Stock Show and Rodeo $70,000 ($75,000).
>> Southwest Shakespeare Festival $25,000 ($25,000).
>> West Texas Crossroads Marathon $10,000 ($60,000).
>> West Texas Track Club $20,000 ($40,000).
>> Ector County Coliseum $50,000 ($50,000).