Kim Smith

By Kim Smith

A 25-year-old Odessa man was shot and killed and a woman was seriously wounded Thursday in Ector County. The suspect is behind bars. According to an Ector County Sheriff’s Office report, deputies were dispatched to the 1100 block of West 57th Street around 3:20 a.m. Jan. 1 about a shooting. When deputies arrived, they found [...]

The Texas Rangers made an arrest Wednesday in the October 2024 shooting death of a man in West Odessa. According to a Texas Department of Public Safety report, the Texas Rangers were asked to assist the Ector County Sheriff’s Office after two people fired weapons toward a moving pickup truck at Mendenhall Street and Brock [...]

Monday marked the start of a new era at City Hall and it’s one that City Manager Aaron Smith said will make all Odessans proud. Monday was Smith’s first official day in his new role and joining him on their first days were Tina Jauz, deputy city manager and James Parker, city attorney. Smith and [...]

As expected, Odessa’s Acting City Manager Aaron Smith was unanimously named the city’s new top administrator during the city council’s regular meeting Tuesday night. Smith replaces David Vela, who resigned for personal reasons last month, just five months after he beat out Smith and former Midland Assistant City Manager Tina Jauz for the job. Mayor [...]

For the third time in three years, the Odessa City Council is expected to appoint a new city manager Tuesday. If his employment contract is approved as expected, Aaron Smith will actually become the fifth person to lead the city in three years, if one counts interim city managers, too. Smith will earn $280,000 a [...]

The Odessa City Council spent more than an hour Tuesday with six representatives of a Clearwater, Florida, company who wants to manage the city’s new $140 million sports complex. The Sports Facilities Companies explained how they would manage the facility from “concept to concrete.” The facility will be built on 100 acres of land north [...]

The Odessa City Council will hold two special meetings Tuesday, one pertaining to the new $140 million sports complex and the other is about the Odessa Development Corporation. During the first meeting at 2 p.m. in council chambers, the council will hear an oral presentation from The Sports Facilities Companies on how it would manage [...]

A Midland County couple who filed a $1 million medical malpractice lawsuit against Odessa Regional Medical Center and Dr. Hector M. Garcia Marrero on Oct. 24 dismissed the case and refiled it against the doctor and Medical Center Hospital Tuesday. Heaven Long and Robert Blake Long allege their baby boy suffered “catastrophic cardiac consequences” due [...]

The City of Odessa is close to getting another new city attorney. According to Tuesday’s agenda, city council members are expected to appoint James D. Parker of Round Rock as the city’s next attorney during their regular meeting, which is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Parker describes himself in his Letter of Interest as [...]

The Odessa City Council Thursday afternoon took another step toward making the city’s new $140 million multi-sport complex a reality. Back in July, the council authorized City Manager David Vela and Interim City Attorney Keith Stretcher to enter into contract negotiations with Sports Med to design and build the complex and authorized the issuance and [...]

The way Odessa City Councilman Gilbert Vasquez sees it, God put two guardian angels on his path on Sept. 9. The 77-year-old first term councilman was in the middle of a city council meeting when suddenly the chest pains he’d been experiencing off-and-on for several weeks became immense. He told Councilman Greg Connell, who sits [...]

The Odessa City Council will discuss Tuesday the possibility of leasing, instead of buying, 200 vehicles for the city’s fleet, buying extended warranties for already purchased solid waste vehicles and spending $700,000 to upgrade McKinney Park. According to materials provided to the council by Equipment Services Director Lura Cotton, the city needs to replace vehicles [...]

The Odessa City Council voted 6-0 Wednesday night to increase property taxes following a public hearing on the matter. The current property tax rate is $0.466275 and the new rate will be $0.470700 per $100 of assessed valuation. The council’s decision will result in the city taking in $6.2 million more than last year with [...]

The Odessa City Council on Tuesday agreed to pay Sports Med Properties’ $2.4 million bill for creating construction plans for the city’s new sports complex. Assistant City Manager Aaron Smith reminded council members that back in October 2024 they agreed to hire Sports Meds to provide construction plans for the $130 million project, which will [...]

The sports complex and the ‘25-‘26 annual budget are two of the key topics on the Odessa City Council’s agenda for Tuesday. The council will discuss paying Sports Med Properties’ $2.4 million bill for creating construction plans for the $130 million new sports complex that will be built on Faudree Road on 100 acres of [...]

The Odessa City Council Tuesday night took two big steps toward one day having a multi-sport complex. The council authorized City Manager David Vela and Interim City Attorney Keith Stretcher to enter into contract negotiations with Sports Med to design and build the complex and authorized the issuance and sale of roughly $40 million in [...]

An ex-convict accused of robbing a burrito stand at gunpoint last month is now facing multiple other charges after police said they’ve linked him to the arson of a church and multiple burglaries throughout West Texas. John Houston McClellan, 33, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated robbery April 6, two days after three men entered [...]

The Odessa City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to issue a 45-day notice announcing they’ll soon be issuing $40 million in certificates of obligation for a $130 million sports complex on the city’s north side. The rest of the complex will be paid for with $75 million in leftover certificates of obligation funds, general funds [...]

Interim Odessa City Manager Richard Morton, Councilman Steve Thompson and some finance gurus have figured out how to pay for the new sports complex and the good news is 65% of it will be paid for in cash and residents will not see their property taxes increase. The complex, which is now expected to cost [...]