News updates from Chamber, town, PDA

Odessa Chamber of Commerce

Final numbers for the Stumpjumpers Desert 100 event is $6,033 net profit from the hospitality tent, as well as $1,576 net profit from the Chamber banquet.

Next year’s Desert 100 will celebrate the event’s 50th anniversary, so plans are underway to provide an even larger tent in 2020. The Odessa Deutschesfest will also celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2020, so it will be a busy year for Odessa businesses and Chamber members.

This Is Odessa, the visitor guide that is now published every other year by The Odessa Record and the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, was supposed to be published this year. However, since next year is the 50th anniversary of Deutschesfest, the decision was made to forego publication this year and put extra effort into early publication of a 2020 edition celebrating 50 years of Fest.

Clark Kagele and Ellen Holman, both members of the Oom Pas and Mas polka band, have been invited to appear as guests this summer on a morning radio show to promote this year’s Fest

Fest 2019

Plans are for Biergarten chairman Trevor Smith and friends to make their own sausage to sell in the beer hall this year.

Chamber president Zach Schafer met with Darren Summers of Voise Sausage by Summers, and an agreement was reached to use the Voise Sausage facility to make the Chamber sausage there. Summers may also sell his own Voise Sausage during Fest if he can find enough help. Also on the sausage front, JonathINN’s has decided to sell their sausage again this year, since it appeared at one time that there might not be sufficient food vendors.

It was announced at a recent Chamber meeting that Jeff and Heather Melcher and family will be selling their own sausage, as well as kartoffeln-n-kloess out of Das Kraut Haus this year. Das Kraut Haus is still for sale by its owners Ellen and Jerry Schafer, but the community is grateful to the Melcher family for stepping in to continue to provide this homemade German dining experience.

Hemp processing

The hemp processing plant has received approval to move forward with its oil processing plans, according to representatives of the Odessa Public Development Authority. The state of Washington has agreed to accept the purchase price of $375,000 for the building that formerly housed the ill-fated biodiesel plant. The remaining debt owed to the state by the PDA has been forgiven. The rest of the summer should see a beehive of activity at the plant.

More updates to follow next week.