The Year in Review

In what may have been the largest Desert 100 ever, the Stumpjumpers Motorcycle Club and folks from all over the northwest converged upon a campsite located about eight miles from Odessa.

Taking over from Miss Odessa for 2016, Molly Schafer, the new Miss Odessa for 2017 was named Danielle Tebow. The only other girl to turn out for the pageant was Maleah Davison who will serve as Princess. Both girls will ride the Odessa community float whenever possible.

Avista Utilities announced it was closing its leased office space in Odessa. Sam Mullins, Avista's local service representative, lives in Odessa and will continue to work out of the town of Odessa.

The town council passed an ordinance requiring identifying tags for cats, with lower costs for altered animals and higher fees for unaltered cats. The feral cat problem in specific areas of town had led to complaints about the growing population of homeless cats. The council's action also prohibited the feeding, harboring or hiding of wild felines within the town limits.

Mason Lewis, Robbie Peterson and Katie Mae Shelton were the finders of the Golden Egg in each of their respective age groups at the Lions Club-sponsored Easter egg hunt which took place at Reiman Park on the Saturday before Easter.

The past winter's snows and the heavy spring rains that followed led to the filling of Pacific Lake near Odessa, a lakebed that had remained dry for 20 years. As soon as both sections of the lake had filled, government workers arrived with stocks of rainbow trout to make the lake once again a prime fishing destination.

A successful Spring Fling was held the last full weekend in April. Quilts filled the high school gymnasium, and a car show lined Division Street on Sunday afternoon to give folks more activities to complement the many yard/garage sales being held throughout the town.

More than 40 youngsters from Odessa participated in the Friends of the Pool Walk-a-Thon to raise money for maintenance and operation of the Odessa Aquatic Recreation Center.

Approximately 20 members of the Got Pink? team participated in the Pink Ribbon Run in Spokane in April to raise money for promoting the early detection of breast cancer.

Members of the FBLA chapter at Odessa High School attended the Washington State FBLA Leadership Conference in Spokane near the end of April, with 29 Odessa students qualifying to attend the national conference in Anaheim, Calif. in June.

The winetasting, microbrew sampling and auctions held to benefit the Odessa healthcare community was held May 4.

The Odessa FBLA chapter was awarded $10,000 for the charity of their choice, which was the Odessa Aquatic Recreation Center. The chapter also received $5,000 worth of Apple products for their school. The Lead2Feed leadership program has sponsored this challenge for the past five years.