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Guest Column: Mayor Gerry Messmer

“Farewell”

The following is the last in a series of columns about life in Odessa written by Mayor Gerry Messmer.

ODESSA, March 31, 2025 -- As my final letter on The Odessa File, I would like to congratulate Dustin Carnes, Cindy Emerson, William Horner and Ron Goossen on their election victories. I would also like to thank Kathy Wilkins, Ron Greschler and Daniel Heichel for stepping up and running for office, and Ron for volunteering to continue as a member of the Planning Board.

I would like to thank my amazing board members for supporting our vision for Odessa and helping get things done. My Deputy Mayor, Tom Letteer, has been superb in every aspect. When I was gone for three months it was like I never left. Tom brought incredible experience, ambition and energy to the board, helping to fill in when I couldn't. I could have never done my job without Tom! He is truly an "Odessa gem" and I will always be grateful for everything he has done!

Pam Ciccone, AJ Bailey and Kristine Gardner have been equally as stellar on the board. Each of them brought different views and perspectives and were in tune every step of the way. I am forever grateful to them for all the hard work they put in to make Odessa a great place to live! They were able to see where we needed to go, what needed to be done and when we had to button down and get it done, they were there to make it happen. I feel fortunate to have had such an amazing team!

It has been a whirlwind seven years as the mayor of Odessa. In that time we brought over $21 million in desperately needed infrastructure upgrades. Those included bringing the sewer system ($5 million) online and to completion after it had been talked about since 2007 or earlier. The project saved OMCS roughly $2 million in construction costs to fix a couple of their catastrophically failing leach fields.

Next, we attacked and are in the middle of the project that all Odessa residents are concerned with the most, the quality of our water ($13 million). This project took five years to go from the first planning meeting to groundbreaking on Phase 1 last year! This month we started Phase 2, the installation of a state-of-the-art water treatment plant. This plant will be able to adapt to the ever-changing standards of the Department of Health for generations to come. The 3.5 miles of new water lines should ensure we don't have to repair a leak, as well. When all is said and done, we will be putting over $8 million in grant funds against the total cost of construction and the balance funded at 0%!

Our old Village Offices and Fire Department building are crumbling as we speak. The building is more than 50 years old and poorly built with construction flaws we uncovered. Getting out of it is imperative. Our new facility ($990k) gives us a brand-new Community Center and a Village Office we can be proud to have people walk into. In the back, 50% of the new fire department building is ready for renovations and the new addition once financing is secured -- and we have 7.5 acres on which we can hold events! Now we just need volunteers to put together some great events.

Cotton Hanlon Bridge is a disaster. I applied for, in conjunction with C&S Engineers, a Bridge NY grant to replace it for $2 million and only a 5% cost share by the village. That project has been slightly delayed but is under way.

We were able to buy and put in the Odessa-Hector Rail Trail without using a single penny of tax dollars. A trail many questioned has become an incredible focal point of our community and there is work scheduled for that in the future -- like trail dust for easier walking, and benches at select locations. If you would like to be involved with it, please come to a board meeting. We could use a "Friends of the Odessa-Hector Rail Trail" organization.

We have been working with the Seneca Watershed Intermunicipal Organization (SWIO) for over a year now and are on the verge of funding for repairing many of the catch basins and culverts in the village. SWIOs engineer Ian Smith has been a rockstar in bringing this to Odessa. We are working toward making this project fully financed by using “in kind” services by the village as our contribution.

Finally, working in close conjunction with our friends at DOT, we were able to get the Main Street project completed, giving us brand new, ADA compliant sidewalks and crosswalks complete with signage. This was a DOT project but had to be closely coordinated with our water line installations. The amazing engineers at DOT and JHA were able to pull this off in superb fashion.

Please keep in mind, all of this was completed by your village board working as a team for you! It is amazing what a team can do when they put their all into it, put personal feelings aside and work for the benefit of the people they represent. Every step of the way, this board looked at everything to make sure it was best for you.

It has been a privilege to serve as your mayor. Thank you.

Photo in text: Odessa Mayor Gerry Messmer.

To see Mayor Messmer's first column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's second column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's third column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's fourth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's fifth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's sixth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's seventh column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's eighth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's ninth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's tenth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's eleventh column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's twelfth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's thirteenth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's fourteenth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's fifteenth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's sixteenth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's seventeenth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's eighteenth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's nineeenth column, click here.
To see Mayor Messmer's twentieth column, click here.