Meet the candidates:

General election, November 5, 2019

This is the final week of information on the various candidates running for office in Odessa. The Record learned last week that Marcus Horak, Joe Schlomer and Bill Pichon have expressed a desire to withdraw as candidates. According to the Lincoln County auditor, however, the ballots have already been prepared and printed, and the names of those who filed during the announced filing periods remain on the ballot.

The planned community forum on October 7, will go forward despite the announced withdrawals.

Since mayoral candidate Marcus Horak submitted no information to The Record, we have included information about write-in candidate Mike Igo in this week’s article. He is running against Marlene Kramer for council position #5.

More next week on the surprising and worrisome developments mentioned above.

Ballot Drop Box Locations:

Lincoln County Courthouse

450 Logan, Davenport

24-hr. drive-up drop box

Elections desk drop

Mon-Fri 9 a.m.- 3 p.m.

Harrington City Hall

11 S. 3rd Street, Harrington

24-hr. drive-up drop box

Bill Crossley

Candidate for mayor

It has been my honor to serve as your mayor for the last two years, and it would be an honor to continue with the work we have started. As The Record has reported before, I have lived in Odessa most of my adult life. I found my wife Chris Crossley here, and together we have raised our three children in Odessa. Easton lives in Liberty Lake and works for Comcast as a digital care specialist, Kolby is a reporter for KRDO News, an ABC affiliate, in Colorado Springs and my youngest, Kassidy is a freshman at WSU in Pullman.

Although I was born in New Jersey and spent the first 23 years of my life in New York, I have come to love this little town. Over the years, I have volunteered for many local events and different organizations. I am a retired Odessa fireman, I was a first responder for the ambulance, I sat on the chamber board, and the city council, and I was even the Biergarten chairman.

The duties of the mayor’s office have been a challenge and a bigger commitment than I ever thought it would be when I ran for the position. I am lucky to work for a company that allows me to attend meetings, take calls and have people stop in to visit when needed. I would not be able to do this job if not for the support of the company.

In the last couple of years, I have enjoyed attending meetings with members of our current engineering firm to learn ways of acquiring grant monies for infrastructure repairs. My goal has always been to fix Odessa with the least amount of expense to its taxpayers. So far, we have applied for and received over 4.5 million dollars in grant funds.

We have a multi-stage project in progress to repair old waterlines and bad roads. As of today, these funds have already replaced Dobson Road and Cedar Street, and we are in the process of replacing Third Avenue, Eighth Avenue and the roadway and waterlines on Fairway.

Next year, if everything keeps moving forward, the repairs will continue with waterline replacement and road repair on the streets around the hospital. Coming up in October, I will again be going to a conference in Wenatchee hoping to find the funds to help with our aging sewer system, which is approaching 20 years of service and is in need of some updating.

The Town of Odessa has always taken pride in the buildings they own around town. As mayor, I want to be sure these buildings are taken care of properly and updated as needed. Old Town Hall is a good example. Finding the money in the budget to do the repairs has always been a challenge. It was brought to the council’s attention that the old town hall was in dire need of a new roof. At the same time, my daughter came home from an FBLA meeting and said how their chapter had won the Lead2Feed Challenge again and had money to donate. I called their advisor, Terri King, who set up a time I could talk to the FBLA chapter students explaining the need for a new roof on the Old Town Hall. Those students agreed to use their winnings to help pay for the roof and this began a great partnership among the FBLA, the Old Town Hall Rejuvenation Society, the Odessa Historical Society and the Town of Odessa.

Knowing that the next step was the much-needed replacement of the building’s windows, the FBLA chapter started a campaign to get all of the windows replaced using donated money. This is just a small example of how this town works. Odessa citizens have always wanted their town and buildings to look good, and the people came forward with donations to help make this happen.

Recently, the council created a nuisance ordinance that allowed the creation of a committee consisting of the mayor, one council member, one citizen of Odessa and an Odessa police officer. With this being a new ordinance and a new committee, we are still working out the bugs, but we have already seen some clean up in many of the more concerning areas. I am happy with the progress we have made.

Another thing I was a part of and am very proud of was the hiring of our two new police officers at the Odessa police department. I am extremely happy with the direction the police department is heading, and I feel confident the department will go a long way toward keeping the citizens of Odessa safe.

Coming up in the near future, we will have to hire replacements for two of our public works employees who are going to be retiring in a couple years. We will need to have them hired soon, as they will need to be trained and enrolled in classes to get the proper licensing needed to run the sewer and water departments.

I feel everything is moving in the right direction. When I first moved here in 1991, I came to know Odessa as a community of people who cared about each other, always supported each other and shared a pride in the cleanliness and kindness the town always showed. Up until that moment, I had never lived in a community quite like that.

I believe this is still who we really are today. With every decision I make as your mayor, I try keeping in mind our values and the good of the town as a whole. I know you do as well, and that is why I am asking for your vote of support.

Mike Igo

Write-in candidate

for council position #5

Mike Igo had initially intended to file for this same council position a few months ago, but then changed his mind. Once again, he has had a change of heart and has thrown his hat into the ring, hoping to find success as a write-in candidate.

He says his main focus is bringing more jobs to Odessa. He feels that the town needs to do a better job of advertising itself to the wider world. He does not want to see Odessa meet the fate of so many smaller towns all around us which no longer have any or only very few businesses, let alone a school, hospital, grocery store, etc. Odessa is a family-friendly town, he says, and it ought to shout out its virtues everywhere and anywhere it can.

While living in Moses Lake before he moved here, Igo says he had never heard of Odessa until a relative or acquaintance spoke highly of the town’s appeal. Apparently, he was encouraged enough by that recommendation to move to Odessa. He has found it a good fit for himself and says he loves the town and its people. He points out, though, that some newcomers to town have a hard time fitting in and that a more welcoming atmosphere ought to prevail. He urges long-time residents to engage with new faces in town, ask them about their interests and point them to various clubs, organizations or businesses that might be of interest to them. Prompt them to get involved in what the town has to offer.

Igo has attended most town council meetings for the past year or more and has followed the deliberations of the council with avid interest. As a previous resident of Moses Lake, he had also been interested in following the workings of city government and politics in general. He was familiar with most of the local politicos in Moses Lake and has also been involved as a supporter in the re-election campaigns of 5th Congressional District representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

If elected to the Odessa Town Council as a write-in candidate, Igo says he would help the mayor in whatever way he can and be cooperative in sharing the workload of the council and coming to informed decisions about what actions to take or not take when problems arise.

Igo says he feels that the town has given him much, and he wants to give back as a council member. He says he can devote his time fully to council work and has no other obligations.