Shelter gets renovation

The apartment building's a handyman's special with the leftover furniture, shattered windows, broken window panes and an exposed pipe work for a ceiling in the ground-floor apartments. It's been like this for years, but a church group is finally going to get it all fixed up for those who don't have anything over their heads.

Members of the First Presbyterian Church in Odessa have been repairing the building that was part of the Last House on the Block. The apartment building for homeless recovering drug addicts was left in disrepair after a fire in the garage next door caused some water damage three years ago.

Milton Thompson, the co-chairman of the church's outreach ministry, said they come here every third Saturday of the month to fix up the apartment building, which he hopes will be usable once again by September 2009.

Thompson said the church had performed several missions in places between New Orleans and Nicaragua, but  this year decided to spend time helping the Big Blue Circle Ministries, which sought for help from the area churches to restore the building since the fire. The church also was moved when it heard of a homeless person in town who was found dead a few years ago.

"Last February we figured we need to do something local," Thompson said. "This will help people within our own community."

There are four buildings in the complex at the corner of Ninth Street and Washington Avenue. Dino Nava, who manages the buildings for the Big Blue Circle, said the tenants at the other buildings will be relocated to the one they are repairing once the project's finished so that they can fix the others.

The volunteers spent the chilly morning installing windows and sheet rock.

Emily Ann Pack, 13, was happy to find the time Saturday to help rip out the old window panes.

"It's fun and you get to help people, instead of sleeping in, which doesn't do much," the Trinity School of Midland student said.

Thompson said the First Presbyterian Church and the Big Blue Circle would both welcome more help to fix the apartment, especially during the holidays when he expects fewer of the volunteers to be around for the project. Anyone who wants more information on the project can call him at 770-3664 or the First Presbyterian Church at 337-3526.