A bit of history was shared and made during the Odessa City Council meeting Tuesday night with a generous donation from one of Odessa’s oldest families.
Larry Bell and his family announced a few months ago they wanted to donate 100 acres to the city so it can build a $50 million sports complex in the Parks Bell Ranch area, north of Faudree Road.
The 80,000-100,000 square foot complex will feature 20 volleyball courts, 10 basketball courts and a track, plus 8-12 multi-purpose fields for soccer, football and lacrosse and up to eight baseball/softball fields.
City officials hope the complex will be paid for by corporate sponsorships and private donations. A move was made in that direction Tuesday to set up a nonprofit organization.
Larry Bell told Odessa’s City Council that it is important to keep the legacy that “our parents and grandparents cared deeply about the community and taught us to give back to where you came from.”
He said his family has built a wonderful life here and that it is important to give back and to “pay it forward.”
He said his family met and said this is the opportunity to give back to Odessa and Ector County. “Let’s do something significant that will lead to a stronger community.”
Bell pointed out how many in the Permian Basin have had to drive hundreds of miles for sporting events and that the new sports complex will mean that folks will now drive here and stay here and spend their money here in the Permian Basin.
Odessa’s Collin Sewell thanked the Bell family and urged unity and positivity going forward. “I think that it is interesting that everything starts with a dream … it’s come to pass in my own life,” Sewell said Tuesday. “Mr. Bell you have taken a dream and created a vision for our community. I want to thank you … we need to take what was a dream and is now a vision and make it a reality … my hope is it will be a new cornerstone for what we are known for … focused on the future and not on the past and on family and not feuds … we can write an entire new chapter from the tree the Bell family has planted … make it something that makes the headlines for what the new Odessa looks like.”
