MIDLAND, Texas — Mayor Javier Joven is ready to put in work at city hall with other City Council members to improve the city ahead of 2023.
"The promises that we made was this, that we need to get back to the basics." said Mayor Javier Joven.
Basics include things like roads and water infrastructure.
"We have over 300 miles of pipes so the thing is this is something we're addressing across the nation. One thing is that we need expertise, we need knowledge and we need to go after those grants to be able to help us with infrastructure," Mayor Joven said.
The mayor also wants to put in place more places to drop off trash to clean up the city.
"What we're going to do is just a common approach, go into a neighborhood, sweep it and then on that Saturday what we're going to do is a centralized bulk drop-off and were going to do that periodically in every district," said Joven.
Henalso wants to add more support for first responders.
"Bringing our firefighters and fire department in line to be able to compensate for the work that they do," Joven said.
Maybe most importantly, the mayor says he wants to be transparent with the citizens of Odessa.
"That it's more open, that it is out in public and to be more visible and to be more seen; in the last 24 months we've been more diligent in going out to the community, hearing what they're wanting and what they're wanting to see and we are trying very desperately to make that happen, to put time in this process and we just keep saying to stick with us, we will get there as a community." said Joven.
The mayor also talked about being customer friendly for developers with a quality of life committee. Joven wants that to be formed as soon as possible and is looking to discuss its formation with city council members.