More Workforce Housing And Stricter Gaming Laws Coming To Odessa
By: Matthew Farrell
Updated: February 12, 2013
ODESSA -- There's no doubt that housing in Odessa is in high demand.
Apartment wait lists are weeks long, and hotels are constantly filled to the brink.
The oil boom is contributing to this problem.
Workers need temporary housing in the area, and on Tuesday night, the Odessa City Council agreed to add a little more.
"What that allows to happen is to have work camps built in industrial districts within the city," Guy Andrews with the Odessa Chamber of Commerce told us.
According to Andrews, this takes care of a need but will also be beneficial to the city's pocketbook.
"It brings in, actually, quite a bit of money. People living in those lodges will be spending money in our economy," Andrews continued.
Andrews says there is already a potential occupant for these new work camp spaces.
"Black Gold is planning to build a lodge on East Pearl St, which is in Industrial District 2," Andrews said.
Another item on the agenda at Tuesday's City Council Meeting was a revised ordinance for gaming facilities.
This proposal comes less than two years after several Odessa gameroom employees were arrested for promoting gambling.
Chief of Police Timothy Burton says the revised ordinance will restructure a policy that was very general before the vote.
"We've lacked the appropriate regulatory mechanisms to ensure these folks aren't operating with impunity," Burton said.
Gaming establishments can operate here, but they can't award money as prizes.
Some establishments were found to be offering cash as prizes during the 2011 bust.
With the new ordinances in place, the police will better be able regulate these establishments.
"Certain establishments have been involved in illegal activity: Illegal gambling and other attendant kinds of crimes such as drug trafficking, and associated robberies because of the quantity of cash that the establishments have on hand," Burton said.
This was the first approval of the gaming ordinance, there will be a second reading of it at a future city council meeting.
This was the first approval of the gaming ordinance, there will be a second reading of it at a future city council meeting.
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