The Odessa City Council will hold a special council meeting Tuesday and ARPA funding and the water reclamation plant are two of the items on the agenda.
According to materials provided to the council, City Manager John Beckmeyer wants to consider accepting the second disbursement of American Rescue Plan Act funds issued to the city in June 2022 in the amount of just over $10 million. The city de-allocated $6.4 million of the funds in November and must now expend nearly $9.6 million by December 2026.
In other matters, the City Council will discuss the findings of Performance Services, Inc., which conducted an assessment of the Bob Derrington Water Reclamation Plant.
Last April the company expressed interest in signing an energy savings performance contract with the city, similar to one they currently have with Odessa College.
The 220-employee company tries to find ways school districts and municipalities can save money through capital improvement projects and if those projects don’t work, the company compensates them.
PSI finds third-party financing for the capital improvement projects using the city’s credit rating and they get paid based on the construction projects as they are completed. After 18 months to two years, a third party analysis is done to ensure the city actually has saved the amount promised.
During an April council meeting, PSI representatives told council members they think the city should replace all 45,000 of the city’s water meters, upgrade the wastewater treatment plant, build a 2 million gallon elevated water tank on the northside of town and convert all of the city’s buildings to LED lighting.
The group noted 6,000 of the city’s water meters couldn’t be read and due to short staffing, employees are estimating monthly usage of some meters regularly. In addition, they noted the city’s meters have antiquated moving parts that malfunction regularly and can’t be replaced. New meters don’t have moving pieces.
During the 3 p.m. meeting, the council is also expected to accept $100,000 from ICA and the city will donate that funding to Clarksville, Tennessee, tornado victims.
The council will also approve for the second time an ordinance naming Robert Martin Odessa Municipal Court’s presiding judge and Keith Kidd as associate judge.
According to Martin’s resume, which the Odessa American obtained through the Texas Public Information Act, Martin obtained his law degree from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1995.
He served as a judge advocate for the U.S. Army, Florida National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve from May 2000 to May 2015, was a colonel/branch commander for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office from 2012 to 2022 and has been a senior attorney at the U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command headquarters in Fort Sam Houston since June 2011.
