NewsWest 9
ODESSA - Councilwoman Sandra Carrasco is holding her first town hall meeting on Thursday. As the District Five Representative, she wants to hear the public's concerns directly and informally.
"If you want to yell at me for the parking ordinance, go ahead. If you want to tell me how you feel about the plastic bag ordinance that we were trying to create, tell me you're concerned," she said.
Carrasco says without people's voices, the first-time councilwoman must go strictly with what is supplied to her to make decisions; a decision like whether to balance the budget by continuing to increase the water bill after it's already gone up by 40 percent.
"Unfortunately, it's going to cost us," she said. "It's no longer something we can just pull out of the ground."
The town hall is open forum, though the city official predicts that the condition of the roads, city recreational development and crime rate will all come up for discussion.
"I know that the Odessa Police Department is really understaffed. They don't have enough officers to be at everything but I'm hoping that maybe we can create a neighborhood watch," she said.
Synthetic drugs will be another big topic to talk about.
"It's really bad that we have to deal with illegal drugs to begin with, but for it to be advertised as a cute little package that's attractive to kids, and then the kids can go and purchase it. To me, that's a big big issue," she said.
Councilwoman Carrasco is hoping meeting attendees might help the city reach a conclusion about selling those substances and says something is in the works. She said they're trying to create something that the city will be able to enforce and that could be used to eliminate the problem. The city representative also believes that now is the time that the elected officials will be better representatives of what people in West and SouthWest Odessa want.
"It's a very diverse group now and we all do have different opinions and different ideas," she said.
