Town, Sheriff in agreement

Monday night’s meeting of the Odessa Town Council provided closure of a sort to the story of Odessa’s $12,000 per month contract with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office for coverage while the search for a new police chief went forward. At the January 14 council meeting, new police chief Brent Dell took the oath of office from Mayor Bill Crossley. Council member Vickie Iverson objected to paying the full $12,000 for the month of January, since the town would have the new chief on its payroll for half of the month. She proposed offering $9,000 and renegotiating the contract.

Council member Landon Lobe reported that Sheriff Wade Magers had accepted the $9,000 offer for covering the month of January. The Sheriff and council members had then agreed to suspend coverage by the county unless a specific need arose. Council member Kelly Watkins said Chief Dell should expect to be paid for his on-call time or for overtime, while the search goes on for a second officer for the department, and the rest of the council agreed.

Chief Dell then reported on the search for another police officer. All of the applicants save one have been entry level, meaning that they all would have to attend the police academy prior to starting actual police work. Training and housing at the academy costs $3,180 and there are no available openings in the class until April of 2019, Dell said. The only applicant who had already attended an academy had just applied Monday. The chief had spoken to him earlier in the day and said he was impressed with what he learned about him. With an applicant pool in place, it appeared that a decision on the new hire might come soon.

Public works director Rod Webster said his crew had been rebuilding pumps and electrical panels, grading alleys, cleaning out the metal shed behind the town shop and dealing with a drain problem in the bathrooms at Reiman Park. Webster also said he would meet with Steve Nelson of CenturyWest Engineering on Tuesday to go over plans for the water line replacement project set to begin whenever weather permits.

Kelly Watkins gave a report on the coverage supplied by the Sheriff’s Office in December, citing the number of arrests made and other statistics.

Mayor Bill Crossley thanked the Odessa community for donations earmarked for upkeep of the Odessa Cemetery.