The Odessa City Council plans to discuss a wide variety of topics during its work session and council meeting Tuesday and recycling, roads, hens, a sports complex and an $862,000 ODC agreement are among them.
During the council’s workshop meeting, which is scheduled for 3 p.m. in council chambers, City Engineer Yervand Hmayakyan will talk to the council about the possibility of using a “pavement restoration technique” instead of seal coating 21 miles of the city’s streets at a cost of $647,451.
According to Hmayakyan, the product that would be used would cut the city’s preventative maintenance program costs in half per square foot and “offers a good service life.”
“It is designed to be applied to low volume streets and our intent is to use it on many of the streets that have not been seal coated or have not been sealed in several years,” Hmayakyan wrote in documents supplied to the council.
Hmayakyan also wants to ask the city for $628,459 for an asphalt sealer that he says would extend the life of pavement for several years.
In other road-related matters, Assistant City Manager Aaron Smith plans to suggest amending the city’s 2020 master thoroughfare plan. He wants to eliminate the connection of the Desert Ridge subdivision to the Sunset Heights neighborhood and the connection of Dawn to Yukon.
According to documents submitted to the council, Smith said he thinks there’s sufficient access to the neighborhood via 52nd Street and Grandview and eliminating the connections would make the neighborhoods safer.
Odessa Development Corporation Chairman Kris Crow also plans to talk about a proposed economic development agreement with Taylor Sudden Services.
Taylor, a family-owned heavy-duty equipment company that is nearly 100-years-old, wants to spend $2.4 million to expand their current facility on Interstate 20 by adding an 18-bay maintenance facility, a paint booth and more office space, according to Crow. Once done, the company would add 24 full-time jobs to its current staff of 31.
The ODC has already approved a five-year $862,579 grant and now needs council approval.
The council is also scheduled to discuss amending the city’s ordinances so people can own up to four backyard hens. Under the proposed ordinance, the hens would have to be in an enclosed structure with three or more sides and a cover. It would also have to have a floor and a door that would allow them to move back and forth between the coop and an enclosed yard.
In addition, the coop couldn’t be closer than 50 feet from any property lines or be seen from the street and it would have to be made of decay-resistant wood, readily movable and maintained in a “good, sound and clean condition.”
Hay, grain, feed and all other food sources would have to be stored in secure containers and it couldn’t be fed on the ground, according to the proposed ordinance.
The city would charge $25 for a backyard hen permit and a multiple pet permit and $15 for wing clipping.
During the council’s regular meeting, which starts at 6 p.m., the council is scheduled to discuss hiring a new marketing company for the ODC: Current Media Partners at cost of $400,000 annually.
CMP has already been working on a marketing plan with a suggested tagline of “Only Odessa.”
One of the founders of the company, Christi Callicoatte, told the ODC board last week they want to make sure manufacturing, logistical, carbon capture, renewable energy and mining companies know Odessa is the only place they want to relocate to.
They’ve looked at marketing efforts in Amarillo, Abilene, Lubbock, Tyler, Austin and Frisco to make sure they can set Odessa apart, Callicoatte said.
Public Works Director Tom Kerr is also scheduled to update the council on a meeting he had with BRI Recycling Services.
BRI, which has had a contract with the city for roughly 20 years, is no longer willing to continue processing the recyclables from the 300-plus bins placed around the city at schools and commercial businesses like DK convenience stores.
The company informed the city roughly 50% of the materials in the recycling bins is contaminated.
In 2018, China decided it wouldn’t accept materials unless the contamination rate was 0.5%. Up until that point, 40% of the United States’ paper, plastics and other recyclables went to China. India, too, has tightened its standards. For example, it has a 1% contamination rate on mixed paper imports.
The city currently disposes roughly 100,000 tons of garbage a year and about 700 tons of recyclables.
According to Kerr, the city now has three options. It can discontinue recycling services, it can scale back recycling to just the Time Machine location or it can scale back recycling to the Time Machine location and a few community collection sites.
If either of the last two options are chosen, all of the locations would be fenced and gated so the site and materials could be monitored to significantly limit contamination.
The city is also set to discuss hiring Synergy Sports Global for $15,000 to conduct a sports complex feasibility study.
The company, which also develops and manages multi-sports facilities and recreation centers, helped create a $25 million sports complex in Heath, a $125 million complex in Colorado and a $40 million project in New Jersey.
According to a PowerPoint presentation they gave the Parks and Recreation board, Synergy would study the area’s demographics and socioeconomics, sports participation rates, competitors, the size and components of the city’s courts and fields, possible partnerships and construction costs. They’d also determine potential sites and create an operating budget.
Calls and an email to Interim City Manager Agapito Bernal for this story were not returned.
The city council will be meeting in executive session to discuss a lawsuit that was filed against the city in February 2022.
The families of two teens, Kaenan Gage Garms, 19, and Evan James Hill, 18, are suing the city claiming they were killed in a wreck caused by an obstructed stop sign.
According to the lawsuit, Garms was driving a Ford F-150 north on Clover Avenue on Sept. 19, 2020 when he failed to see the stop sign at 52nd Street because it was blocked by vegetation and his truck collided with a GMC Terrain being driven by Andrew Jakob Nading, 19.
Garms and Hill, who were both in the Ford, were killed as was Nading.
D’Morriyon Breaux, 18, who was in the Ford, and Benjamin Mathew Luna, who was in the GMC, sustained grave injuries, the lawsuit stated.
The families of Garms and Hill, along with Breaux and Luna allege in their lawsuit numerous accidents had happened at the same intersection because of the obstructed sign and the City of Odessa was aware of that.
According to an Odessa Police Department report, a video taken at 2:52 a.m. that day showed an unidentified black car run the stop sign as it traveled at a very high rate of speed going north on Clover Avenue and crossing East 52nd Street. Almost immediately after, the Ford is seen chasing the black car at a high rate of speed and running the stop sign.
As the Ford entered the intersection, the GMC, which was also traveling at a high rate of speed on 52nd Street, crossed the intersection, the report stated. The front end of the GMC struck the driver’s side of the Ford and both vehicles proceeded toward the northeast corner of the intersection.
