The Odessa City Council will discuss how best to spend nearly $972,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds at Tuesday’s 3 p.m. work session meeting.
According to materials provided to city council members, the city has received requests totaling nearly $1.3 million from such organizations as the West Texas Food Bank, Permian Basin Mission Center, Meals on Wheels, Hollingsworth Head Start, Family Promise and the Elderly and Disabled Lawn Mowing Program.
The city’s community development department is also seeking $686,000 for its housing rehabilitation and demolition programs and another $150,000 for administrative costs.
The council will also discuss how to allocate HOME Investment Partnership Program Funds. City staff is requesting roughly $274,000 for the city’s homeowner rehabilitation/reconstruction program.
Also on the agenda will be a discussion on public improvement districts, hiring a janitorial service, sprigging at Sherwood Park and setting up a non-profit foundation that can raise money for the city’s proposed sports complex.
Last September, the city council agreed developers can now ask the city council for permission to create public improvement districts. PIDs are city-owned pocket parks paid for through residents’ property taxes.
Last month, the Bell family donated 100 acres of land to the city for a proposed $50 million sports complex in the Parks-Bell Ranch area. If successful in forging public/private partnerships, city officials hope to build a 75,000-100,000 square foot indoor facility with 20 volleyball courts, 10 basketball courts and a 200m banked competition track. Outside, they intend to build 8-12 multi-purpose fields for soccer, football and lacrosse and up to eight baseball/softball fields.
According to the city, six companies have expressed a desire to take care of 11 city facilities and staff is recommending the council accept the bid of A&L Diamond Shine Cleaning, which came in with the lowest bid of $400,000.
It would be a three-year contract with a possible one-year extension.
The highest bid came in at nearly $1.6 million.
Also on the council’s work session agenda is an executive session meeting with the city attorney and the city’s contract attorneys. According to the agenda, the meeting is exempt from being held in public under Section 551.071(2), which states a meeting may be closed when the duty of the attorney to the governmental body under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of Texas clearly conflicts with this chapter.
During the council’s regular meeting at 6 p.m., council members will discuss the possibility of partnering with the City of Midland to recruit a veterinarian who could provide services to both cities. They’ll also decide if Interim City Manager Agapito Bernal should be given permission to negotiate with a search firm to assist with the recruitment.
