Beautification

Keep Odessa Beautiful is actively involved with the City of Odessa Parks & Recreation Department, the Texas Department of Transportation, Odessa Council for the Arts & Humanities, Main Street Odessa, Ector County Independent School District, Odessa College, UTPB, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Permian Basin Master Gardeners, City of Odessa Community Development Department, Odessa Housing Finance Corporation and the Ector County Extension Service in efforts to foster, develop and maintain beautification projects and programs that "improve the quality of life" for all citizens in our community.

Adopt-a-Spot Litter Prevention Program: Public parks, downtown areas, school campuses and various locations are adopted through this program which attributes to cleanup and beautification of public places. (Refer to Litter Prevention & Cleanup page for complete details on this program).

Contributors Memorial Tree Program at Memorial Gardens Park: Since 2000, Keep Odessa Beautiful has invested over $100,000 in the Contributors Memorial Tree Program which has resulted in the irrigation installation & planting of over 200 trees at this park, installation of park benches and litter receptacles, xeriscape garden plant materials and plant material signage.

The Memorial Wall at the xeriscape garden of the park currently displays over 150 memorials and this program is and on-going program. The continuation of the program allows the "special" memorial tree plantings including plaque installation on the Memorial Wall to be scheduled in late fall through the spring.


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Click for Brochure.
Please print out last page and mail to address shown
or fax to 432-334-7904.

Planet Troopers Summer Scholarship Program: This program is a joint partnership between Keep Odessa Beautiful and the City of Odessa Parks & Recreation Department, and Neighbordhood Development Services, that focuses on youth participating during the summer months to cleanup public parks.

Youth are encouraged to participate in the cleanup of public parks during the summer months. Participating youth that cleanup receive 7 FREE SWIMMING PASSES that entitles youth to swim at the four (4) public swimming pools of their choice.

Arbor Day Observance: Annual Arbor Day celebrations are held at a local Ector County Independent School District elementary school. Keep Odessa Beautiful, City of Odessa Parks & Recreation and the Texas Forest Service coordinate this annual event.

Keep Odessa Beautiful promotes urban forestry education at the selected school by utilizing "urban forestry education materials" which are distributed to all grade level teachers to be utilized by the students during the month of April leading up to the Arbor Day Observance event.

Trees are planted at the school campus and Smokey Bear attends. Additionally, the City of Odessa Parks & Recreation is recognized annually at this event by the Texas Forest Service for its success in maintaining its TREE CITY USA status.

Odessa Neighborhood ShadeMakers Tree Planting Program: This program is a partnership among Keep Odessa Beautiful, Texas Forest Service, City of Odessa Parks & Recreation, City of Odessa Neighborhood Development Services and numerous community sponsors.

The focus of the program is to promote and foster urban forestry through neighborhood revitalization in residential neighborhoods. This program allows selected homeowners to receive a FREE containerized tree to plant in their front yard. Homeowners receive a "Tree Survival Kit". The kit contains a Tree Planting & Care Guide (English & Spanish), and various literature necessary for planting & caring for trees. Homeowners pledge a promise to water and care for the tree and the tree is theirs for FREE!


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Governor’s Community Achievement Award/Landscaping and Beautification at BI-20 and West Loop 338:

What is the Governor’s Community Achievement Award (GCAA)? These awards are co-sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation and Keep Texas Beautiful on an annuals basis which are awarded to communities in nine population categories that have the best grassroots volunteer environmental programs in the State. The awards recognize achievement in seven areas:

	Community Leadership & Coordination
	Education
	Public Awareness
	Litter Prevention and Cleanup
	Illegal Dumping and Enforcement
	Beautification and Property Improvement
	Solid Waste Management

Annually, the Texas Department of Transportation allocates $1 million in landscaping prize money to be divided among the nine winning communities each year. These funding awards are designated specifically for landscaping along state-maintained highways in each winning community. Once a community has been awarded GCAA, the prize money is transferred to the winning community’s district office for the landscape project to be developed.

As an award winner of the GCAA in 2000, Keep Odessa Beautiful and the local Odessa District\Texas Department of Transportation developed the beautification entrance at BI-20 and West Loop 338. This project resulted in $130,000 awarded to Keep Odessa Beautiful for its success in being selected as the GCAA winning community in population category 7: populations from 50,001 to 100,000. Thelocal Odessa District matched an additional $130,000 towards this project for a total investment of $260,00 for the beautification entrance to West Odessa. The project was completed in the Summer of 2003.

Murals/Public Art: Keep Odessa Beautiful has developed active partnerships with the Odessa Council for the Arts & Humanities, Main Street Odessa and the Parks Foundation Board and local artists for the purpose of implementing murals/public art projects in the community.

Ector County Coliseum Mural: This public art mural project is nestled inside the largest venue in Odessa – the Ector County Coliseum. This venue is frequented by over 209,057 visitors annually. The mural depicts a collage of the various annual events held at the Coliseum. Several event sponsors participated by having their very own "event mural" painted in the collage. Keep Odessa Beautiful’s public awareness message on this mural focuses on: "keep your coliseum litter free".

Odessa Recycle Time Machine Mural:
A collage of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" is featured on the entrance walls of this facility.

The mural focuses on promoting public awareness of Odessa's recycle center that is frequented by over 27,000 citizens annually.

Strike It Rich Bingo Mural: This public art mural project makes a definite statement to its customers…play bingo and win up to $5,000 nightly…as $100 bills float towards the doorway entry ways of the bingo hall. Keep Odessa Beautiful is licensed by the Texas Lottery Commission to conduct charitable bingo.