Council sets kitchen-use fees

At its Monday night meeting, the last meeting of 2014, the Odessa Town Council approved its annual budget for 2015, a resolution adopting a fee structure for use of the Old Town Hall and the community commercial kitchen, and another resolution adopting the increased fees for water/sewer/refuse.

Police chief Helen Coubra read to the council a letter she had drafted to the state Department of Transportation requesting that the speed limit sign at the eastern town limits be moved back to its prior location east of Hopp Road. Her letter said in part that since Hopp Road is within the town limits, has a lower posted speed limit and is used for access to the town’s walking trail, the speed limit sign for 60 mph should not be located ahead of the Hopp Road intersection point as one is driving out of town to the east.

Coubra also discussed records retention issues, along with Mayor Doug Plinski and Public Works Director Rod Webster.

Webster reported that his department is working on equipment and gearing up for eventual snowfall.

Town Fire Chief Don Strebeck reported the purchase of two used vehicles for his department and announced that open burning within the town limits had ended on November 30.

The Firemen’s Auction is scheduled for February 28, 2015, and efforts will soon begin to collect used vehicles and machinery to be sold at that event.

Strebeck also asked whether the town had made any decisions on off-highway vehicle (OHV) use in and around Odessa. Plinski responded that the town was awaiting information from Lincoln County which in turn was waiting for an opinion from the state attorney general before proceeding.

Cleanup of the vegetation growing within the bed of Crab Creek inside the Odessa town limits is scheduled for sometime after September of 2015.

Plinski announced that a new heating unit had been installed to heat the Odessa Public Library. He also said that his meetings with other municipal leaders had shown that many smaller towns are facing similar problems, such as loss of revenue, which has dropped by about half over the past few years. The Public Works Trust Fund, he said, which had been earmarked for infrastructure projects, had been depleted by the legislature in recent years to pay for other things.

Another meeting on the Shoreline Master Program was to be held December 11 in Davenport.

The council’s next meeting will be January 12, 2015.