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Guest Column: Mayor Keith T. Pierce

“A busy first month”

ODESSA, May 15 -- Greetings from your new Mayor! The editor of this fine publication has granted me an opportunity to reach out to my fellow citizens of this wonderful community. I hope to keep you all updated monthly on current events and things we as a Village Board are working on. My hope is that through The Odessa File, the people of Odessa can contact me with any concerns or comments they may have. My ultimate goal as Mayor of Odessa is to garner as much community involvement as possible. We, as a community, can do so much for our "Little Village on the Hill" if we just do it together!

It's been a busy first month in office. We said goodbye to one of our DPW workers, Loren Walp, who had been with the Village since 2002. Loren was a wonderful asset to our community and will be greatly missed. Loren's replacement has been on the job for a couple of weeks. His name is Eric Wheaton. Eric lives in Alpine and is a graduate of Odessa-Montour School and is a Volunteer Fireman with our own Ridge Runners. If you see Eric out and about working, give him a nice welcome to the community.

In the Village Board's constant effort to reduce expenses, the DPW laborer position was reduced to a part-time, 20-hour-a-week position. If at some point it appears that the level of service to our community members is falling, we will revisit the issue, but as for now we feel this is the best course for our village.

We had a visit from Kelsey Jones of SCOPED at our last meeting to discuss what the village receives for its $1,000-a-year membership dues. At present, the village has invested 10 years of dues ($10,000) and has received little if nothing from this program. It was a very informative meeting for all. Some responsibility lies with us as a village. We need to better pursue these opportunities and ask for help more often. To that end, we asked Mr. Jones to check for any grants available for sidewalks, DPW buildings, and Municipal buildings. To date, I have had several correspondences with SCOPED and am meeting with them next week to go over what they have found for us.

There are a few things that are concerning the Board that I would like to share with you all so that everyone knows what will be coming over the horizon in the next few years.

The first would be our Municipal/Fire Department building. We presently have issues with some structural deficiencies with regards to the roof slabs pulling away from the front of the building. We have been in contact with engineering firms in hopes of coming up with a comprehensive plan to address this.

The second thing on our radar is the DPW building. If you haven't seen the inside of this structure, I encourage you to stop in sometime and take a tour! DPW Chief Tim Jaynes would love to do that for you.

Another situation we are looking at is the pedestrian bridge. This has been an ongoing problem for many years and there seems to be no inexpensive or easy solution to this problem. At the present time we are working with SCOPED to try to find funding for this project.

The last thing I want you to know about is something that Trustee Tomassi is working on. Peggy is facilitating a group of people coming up with a comprehensive 3-year plan for Odessa. There is involvement from citizens, business owners and local officials. They have met several times and seem to be headed in the right direction. I'm sure Peggy would love any input you would like to pass along.

That's life in a nutshell right now. You are all up to date. With any luck this will be a monthly occurrence. I look forward to any input from you all at any time. It is your Village! Come get involved!

Keith T Pierce
Mayor


E-mail: villageofodessa@stny.rr.com

Photo in text: Mayor Keith T. Pierce

 

Village Board members

Pictured below, from left: Mayor Keith Pierce and Village Board Trustees Peggy Tomassi, Rita Decker, Robin Thoman and Shawn Crane..

Mayor: Keith Pierce

Trustees: Rita Decker, Peggy Tomassi, Robin Thoman, Shawn Crane

Village Clerk: Kristi Pierce, 300 E. Main St., Odessa, 594-2100

Deputy Clerk: Kay Collins, 300 E. Main St., Odessa, 594-2100

Department of Public Works: Tim Jaynes

Municipal Building: 300 E. Main St., Odessa, 594-3792

Dutton S. Peterson Memorial Library: 106 First St., Odessa, 5942791

 

Schuyler County Officials

Legislature Members:

Top row (from left): Thomas Gifford, Delmar Bleiler, Doris Karius, Glenn Larison

Bottom row: Michael A. Yuhasz, Dennis Fagan, Paul Marcellus, Stewart Field

   
       

Legislature Chairman

Thomas M. Gifford, 535-9517

Legislature Members:

Michael A. Yuhasz, 535-4967

Doris L. Karius, 546-5544

Delmar F. Bleiler Jr., 594-3437

Glenn R. Larison, 594-3385

Dennis Fagan, Tyrone

Paul Marcellus, Watkins Glen

Stewart Field, Reading Center

County Clerk: Linda Compton, 535-8133

Sheriff: William Yessman, 535-8222

Undersheriff: Breck Spaulding, 535-8222

County Treasurer: Margaret Starbuck, 535-8181

District Attorney: Joseph Fazzary, 535-8383

 

State, Federal Officials for Schuyler County

Sen. Charles E. Schumer

United States Senate
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3201
DC Phone: 202-224-6542
DC Fax: 202-228-3027
Email Address: http://schumer.senate.gov/webform.html


Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand

United States Senate
478 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
DC Phone: 202-224-4451
Website: http://gillibrand.senate.gov/

U.S. Rep. Eric Massa

United States House of Representatives
1208 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
DC Phone: 202-225-3161
DC Fax: 202-226-6599
Website: http://massa.house.gov/

State Senator George H. Winner, Jr. -- Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Yates, western Tompkins, Enfield, Ithaca (Town and City), Newfield, Ulysses(Trumansburg)

Room 415, Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
Phone: (518) 455-2091
Fax: (518) 426-6976
www.senate.nyssenate53.com

Assemblyman Tom O’Mara -- Chemung, Schuyler, Tioga
Room 720, Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
Phone: (518) 455-4538
Website: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=137

Assemblyman James G. Bacalles -- Steuben, Yates
439 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
Phone: (518) 455-5791
Website: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=136

 

© The Odessa File 2009
Charles Haeffner
P.O. Box 365
Odessa, New York 14869

E-mail publisher@odessafile.com