New employees at OTC

Long-time Odessa Trading Company employee Bud Largent thought it would be a good idea to introduce the company's three newest employees to the Odessa community, especially since all three are from out of the immediate area. OTC manager H.P. Carstensen agreed, so Largent invited The Record to come and talk to the three gentlemen and take their picture.

All three are mechanics who work on the farm equipment that OTC sells and services. They made sure that one of the tractors currently being worked on in the shop was in the picture with them. Although one of them seemed a bit hesitant at first, they all agreed to share a brief bit of history with the newspaper and thus with the entire town.

Wes Schultz has been with the Odessa Trading Company for about a year, but he is still a relative newcomer to one of Odessa's largest employers. The former logger commutes to his job in Odessa from Airway Heights, where he lives with his wife and four children. He has no plans currently to move to Odessa, saying he doesn't mind the drive at all. Any adverse weather conditions, he says, just make the weekday ride more interesting.

James Rowe has been with OTC for only about a month and moved to Odessa with his significant other, Laura Cox, whose mother and other family members were already living here. A native of West Virginia, Rowe ended up on the West Coast after serving in the military. He had lived and worked in Tacoma since 1986. This is his first job in eastern Washington.

Jesse Smith started working for OTC about two months ago. He and his wife Kim live at Lamona with their two-year-old child. Jesse also has three older children attending schools elsewhere. He is a Kansas native who, like Rowe, also ended up in the American West after a stint in the military.