The regular Mayor and Council meeting in the Town of Odessa was all business as the new mayor and her council plowed through their agenda making for a timely and productive session.

In a 58 to 19 vote, acting mayor Kathy Harvey was elected to the mayoral position officially in a town election held Sept. 12. Her opponent was Odessa resident Arlene Holden.

After reading the oath of office to start the meeting Monday night, Harvey said, “Let’s move forward and get some work done.”

Off of the agenda came eight different items involving issues the various commissions are working on or things on which the town is awaiting notice and progress from third parties. Things that had been on the agenda for several months such as DelDOT’s Transportation Plan were taken off until further notice when the council and mayor would need to discuss and address those issues.

Harvey reported the four town commissions are all operational and working hard.

Laura Bedzyk, chairperson for the Historic Commission, reported work had begun on the town’s historic guidelines.

The Historic Commission, she said, will be using information provided by other communities, looking to complete this project over the course of several months with several extra meetings scheduled until they are finished.

The Planning Commission is working on the town’s Comprehensive Plan, Harvey said. The commission plans to bring amendments and issues for the council to address as they come, in stages.

Web site
At last month’s meeting, town resident Anthony Manista submitted a written statement to the town informing everyone that he and his business partners would not be providing and maintaining the town Web site free of charge. Manista had requested a fee of $200 a month, an offer specifically for the town of Odessa, to continue maintaining the site, www.odessadelaware.com.

It was decided the issue would be tabled until this month, so mayor and council could search for outside sources or grants to provide the funding as the town’s budget did not have room for the Web site’s new service fee.

This month, mayor and council voted to not take Manista up on his offer.

Manista cited that they had voted to hire an attorney whose fee is $190 per hour. “If you were to use your attorney for one hour less,” he said, “you could pay for the Web site.”

Councilmember Karlyn Grant said the town has yet to use the attorney and that $2400 for the year was not in the budget.

Harvey said she was able to find an alternative offer, free of charge.

“It may not be as pretty,” she said, “but it is the people’s money.”

Town Signage
During the Sept. 12 election, residents were polled on the issue of placing “Do Not Enter” and “No Right Turn” signs restricting cut-through traffic on High and Osbourne streets and Tatman Alley.

Fifty-two resident voted in favor of the signs and 20 residents disapproved.

Harvey asked the council to reconsider the ordinance that failed over the summer.

Grant motioned for the council to reconsider, as did councilmember John Freeman.

Freeman, who was appointed to the council in September, said he would like to walk the streets to observe the problems.