'Give us a chance to fix the trash issues. We will get it done.'
Odessa Mayor Cal Hendrick and Keep Odessa Beautiful are working together to fix the growing trash concerns the city faces.
'Give us a chance to fix problems like the trash issue. We will get done,' said Odessa Mayor Cal Hendrick. 'I promise you, we are almost now up to full trucks. Now we've got to get staff. We have five street sweepers. Do you know how many operators we have? One. It's not paying a competitive wage.'
To drive a semi-truck, the drivers must have a CDL, and many prospective employers already hold the license.
'We can't have the city paying $18 an hour while private industries are paying $30. You're never going to get anybody to work for you, right? You have to pay more, but to pay more, you have to have more money. To have more money, and it's a terrible word to say, but you're going to have to raise taxes.'
Hendrick says he does not want to raise taxes to hire more people.
'I'm frustrated. Why is the state sitting on a trillion-dollar surplus and we can't afford to pay a truck driver a competitive wage, a fair wage for hard work, right?'
The city of Odessa officials are working hard to keep the community clean. That is one of Mayor Hendrick's goals: to keep Odessa beautiful and clean.
'We have great leaders right now that are moving; they're supporting us and leading by example in actually showing how they can help be part of that solution and not the problem,' Claudia Ortega of Keep Odessa Beautiful said.
Ortega says everyone can pitch in to help solve the problem by throwing trash away and helping pick it up.
'The best thing is to throw the trash where it belongs,' Ortega said. 'There are either trash cans or dumpsters for when you're throwing your trash in a bag; just make sure that the bag is secure. You tie it really well. So the winds will not take that trash when they're servicing either the trash cans or the dumpsters.'
'Just don't throw the trash in a place that it doesn't belong; I think it's as simple as that.'
Claudia Ortega says that if our local leaders, like the mayor, councilmen, and others, help to pick up trash, then we can all help make Odessa beautiful.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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