The Odessa City Council voted Tuesday night to donate $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to the Medical Center Hospital Foundation to help fund the new mental health hospital and another $500,000 to the hospital to start a free clinic for the early detection of diabetes.
The council voted unanimously on both measures after hearing from Russell Tippin, the hospital’s chief executive officer, and Rebekah Redfern of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
The Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center, which will have 200 inpatient beds, is set to open in 2025.
Tippin told the council that too often people suffering from a mental health crisis are either being treated in emergency rooms or are having to be driven to Big Spring by law enforcement officers.
The new hospital will alleviate those issues in addition to providing quality treatment to people of all ages, Tippin said.
The city’s donation will go a long way to getting the project fully funded and completed, Tippin said.
Tippin assured Mayor Javier Joven the city will be able to track the donation because it will go through the foundation. It won’t be lost in the hospital’s budget, he said.
Nor will it go to the hospital CEO’s slush fund, which doesn’t really exist, he joked.
Redfern was part of a team that started Midland’s free diabetes clinic. She said so far they’ve seen 650 new patients, all of whom are uninsured and were previously forced to seek care in Midland Memorial Hospital’s emergency room.
Midland’s clinic, which is open for four hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, received a $750,000 endowment to help build the clinic, but Odessa’s will be located in an already existing MCH clinic that had to be closed down, Tippin said.
The nine-room clinic is already equipped and the hospital will provide staffing, Tippin said. They hope to work with Texas Tech to bring resident doctors on board to work with MCH nurses, he said.
The clinic will likely operate two to three days a week until the patient population grows, he said.
The council also heard from Finance Director Kaylie Banda, who recently met with department heads to get their ideas on how to spend $8.5 million in remaining ARPA funds.
The city has until the end of the year to obligate the funds and until Dec. 31, 2026, to spend them.
The public works department provided a long list of street projects, while the police department asked for an updated 911 system. The fire department listed cancer screenings, hiring and retention incentives and updated tools on its wish list. The department also noted it will need additional fire stations in the future and to replace a couple of existing fire stations.
The police and fire departments also noted the crumbling two-story parking garage downtown needs to be demolished.
City Manager John Beckmeyer said the building, built in 1982, “is basically junk and you shouldn’t park in it.”
Although money has already been set aside for a new walkway from the garage to the police department, Beckmeyer said that money can be redirected to demolishing the garage.
The utilities department also noted the need for water, sewer and broadband infrastructure improvements.
Banda reminded the council that some of the road improvement projects are already reflected in the city’s budget, but said using ARPA funds for some of them would allow the city to free up money for projects that can’t be paid for with ARPA funds.
Joven asked the council members to take a look at the list to prioritize projects within their districts.
The council also heard from Andy Martinez and Sergio Leyva from the West Texas Soccer Association Tuesday night. The men, who started the competition soccer organization for children 6-14 three years ago, said they hope to enter an agreement with the city to use city soccer fields.
The league started with nine teams and is now up to 152, Martinez said. They play two games every other weekend at the Permian Basin Sports Complex, but they want to grow even more.
Right now they need 14-16 fields and are excited about the new sports complex, which will have 10 soccer fields, Martinez said.
The council directed staff to work up a facility use agreement to bring back before the council in a couple of weeks.
The council also agreed, in theory, to spend $90,000 for a study on a 48-54 inch sewer line that ends at the Derrington Plant.
Utilities Director Kevin Niles said the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued an odor nuisance violation to the city. If the council agrees to expend the money, Carollo Engineering will spend the next six to nine months determining the type of odor it is and what the concentration of hydrogen sulfide is in the line. The firm will then make recommendations on next steps to mitigate the odor, Niles said.
Niles also corrected the record on which line is the problem line. In city documents, he said it was the Q-line, but it’s actually the P-line.
He told the council he believes the pipe doesn’t have enough volume and that’s what’s causing the odor.
The council also indicated they are in favor of Nile’s recommendation to spend $57,000 to upgrade the Derrington Plant’s dichlorination system, which is a sulfur dioxide injection system.
The system is currently a pressure system and Niles said he’d like to change it to a vacuum system, which is much safer and less expensive. Replacement parts would also be much easier to come by, he said.
In materials provided to the council prior to the meeting, Niles called the system “outdated and dangerous” and said it was likely to leak or break down at any time.
The council also heard three proposals for former Fire Station No. 6 on Brentwood Drive, which is currently up for sale.
Peace Academy of West Texas is a six-year-old nonprofit that provides educational, social and cultural classes, trips, lectures and workshops to people in need. A representative for the group said they’d like to purchase the building to expand their programming.
Austin and Lauren James said they’d like to purchase the station to rent out office space to small businesses while utilizing the rest of the building for their businesses. He owns and operates Giant Rentals and Services and she owns Lauren James Clothing Company.
Megan Prado told the council her family, which opened Town and Country Drug in 1958, would like to own a building of their own to operate their business out of. She said she dreams of opening a drive-thru pharmacy.
Joven urged everyone to set up a pre-development meeting with Planning and Zoning staff to discuss impact fees and other considerations. He noted a big problem with the building is the lack of parking.
The station will be placed back on the agenda in about four weeks.
The city council also agreed to establish a committee to review all applications for hotel occupancy taxes. Beckmeyer said he’d like to see Banda, City Attorney Dan Jones, City councilmember Steve Thompson and someone from his office on the committee, perhaps the city’s new assistant city manager, Cristina Burns, who started Jan. 2, he said.
The council also agreed to de-codify the Odessa Development Corporation’s infrastructure and facade grant program. Jones and Beckmeyer said the program will now be operated by policies rather than laws, making the process to obtain grants much easier.
Beckmeyer said he’d heard people were concerned the grant program was being dismantled, but that simply isn’t the case.
Since 2016, the ODC has provided grant money to downtown businesses as a means to both attract new businesses and improve existing aesthetics.
Eligible business owners and operators can receive up to $25,000 in ODC grant money for their facades and up to $200,000 to revamp their infrastructure.
NEW ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER CRISTINA BURNS
Odessa City Manager John Beckmeyer announced Tuesday night that the city has a new assistant city manager. Cristina Burns began her job Jan. 2. According to the city’s website, Burns previously served as the director of community services for the City of Midland. She oversaw animal services, health services, parks and recreation and the Hogan Park Golf Course. Prior to that she was the downtown development coordinator and planning division manager. She has a master’s degree in urban planning and a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning, both from Texas A&M.
