Two longtime members of the Odessa College Board of Trustees are resigning from their spots and members will consider the appointment of replacements at their 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday.
The gathering will be held in the Zant Community Room of the Saulsbury Campus Center.
The board will consider the resignation of trustee Neil Grape, Place 6, and Board Chair Tommy Clark, Place 9, and the appointment of Hortencia Del Bosque and Montie Garner. Del Bosque would replace the late Richard Abalos in Place 2 and Garner would replace Grape.
Grape, a retired banker and CPA, said he has been on the board for 13 years and Clark has been on for almost 10 years.
“… I just turned 84 years old,” Grape said. “It’s been a very enjoyable time being on that board, but the age I’ve reached now it’s time to step down.”
He added that he felt it was time for someone new to come on.
Clark said he’s resigning for personal reasons and that the resignations were not planned.
“I’ve enjoyed my almost 10 years on this board. I think it’s one of the best boards in the city of Odessa, in Ector County …,” Clark said.
He and his wife are going to be spending more time at their lake home and want to take some time to travel.
“We’ve been in Odessa 33 years. We’re going to stretch out a little bit and find out what else is going on out there before we can’t. I did not want to half way do that job, and specifically being the chair of the board we spend a lot of time in committees and stuff like that and I just didn’t want to miss all that and still be on the board, so I chose to just resign rather than just do it half way,” Clark said.
He said after almost 10 years on the OC board he has learned a lot.”
I cannot tell you how much I’ve enjoyed it,” Clark said.
He added that the other board members accepted him like he knew what he was doing. He said he couldn’t remember a time when they didn’t get along. They would disagree, but they figured it out.
“It’s just that type of board. It’s like a family. … That’s the type of board you want to be a part of,” Clark said.
He started his career in 1988 with Western Uniform and Towel Service. AmeriPride bought Western Uniform in 1999 and Clark finished the rest of his 30-plus career with AmeriPride, retiring in 2019 as vice president.
He said he knows Del Bosque, who was a teacher at Odessa High School, and knows of Garner. Clark said both will be good board members.
Also on the agenda is the reorganization of the board; Wood Health Sciences Building Naming agreements; review plan of finance consolidated fund revenue bonds; review and approve parameters resolution authorizing issuance of consolidated fund revenue bonds, appointing a representative of the district and delegating to the representative certain matters with respect to the sale of the bonds and the offering documents and enacting other provisions and enacting other provisions relating to the issuance and sale of the bonds.
Also, Wood Health Sciences Building Naming agreements with Odessa Regional Medical Center and Grow Odessa.
