Town Council

The Odessa Town Council swore in its newest member, Kelly Watkins, at Monday night's meeting, with town clerk Gail Kiesz doing the honors. Watkins takes over the position vacated by Lois Harp, who resigned due to illness.

The council, with budget considerations at the forefront this time of year, denied a request by the EMTs to have rental fees to the Old Town Hall and its kitchen waived or reduced when that group holds it hunters' breakfast on the first two days of the fall hunting season. The council had reduced the fees last year for the EMTs, but faced with an ever worsening fiscal situation, council members felt they could no longer in good conscience allow full fees to go uncollected.

The council also passed a resolution in which it agreed to share equipment costs for maintenance and repair with the Odessa School District. This sharing agreement would allow both entities to use the equipment and then share the costs incurred the event of any breakdowns and for routine maintenance.

Council also discussed revisions, additions and deletions to a policy on the use of audio and video recordings made by members of the Odessa Police Department.

Officer Bryce Peterson, reporting on behalf of Odessa Police said Fest had been relatively quiet, although there had been some "juvenile issues" overnight from Friday to Saturday. Thefts were also reported at four booths of the street fair that same night. In the past, Peterson said, the school group had provided overnight security of the booths, which were also cordoned off with plastic fencing material. Last year and this year, however, there was no security, since the street fair was so spread out over both ends of Division Street downtown. Another attempted theft was interrupted at the town's tourist park when the owner heard a noise and investigated. Someone was seen lifting two golf bags from the back of a pickup truck. The thief dropped the bags and ran, Peterson said. The owner of the pickup then determined that two additional golf bags were missing. They were found in the creek bed the next morning and returned to their owner.

A local resident who had received several past warnings about allowing a pet dog to bark at length was cited by Odessa Police. Another person found rifling through the corn booth cooler was stopped by Officer Peterson. When it was determined that the person had outstanding warrants, he was arrested and transported to the Lincoln County Jail.

Police were also called to a dispute at the football field and to a Saturday morning disorderly conduct situation at La Collage Inn. Despite the mayhem described, Peterson said there were no serious incidents in or related to the Biergarten crowd. Whatever potential problems occurred were handled quickly by the hired security staff in the Biergarten and police action was avoided.

Editor's note: The Record spoke to one of the vendors whose items had been stolen. He described a carved, wooden bear about a foot high as one of the items, as well as a replica of a sailing ship. Residents and other readers are asked to report sightings of these items or of any suspicious activity they may have witnessed during the night-time hours at the Fest.

The council took a break at 8 p.m. and then returned to discuss the budget for the next fiscal year.