The village of Odessa in Schuyler County could be dissolved unless it is able to fill three board of trustees positions. If the village is unable to fill the positions, it could be dissolved and then absorbed into the neighboring towns of Catharine and Montour.
Odessa Mayor Gerry Messmer, who has served on the board for seven years and plans to retire after his term ends in 2025, said he is looking for someone to run for his seat as well as two additional trustee seats.
Currently, there are five board members including the mayor. Messmer said trustees Thomas Letteer Jr. and Kristine Gardner did not plan to run for another term.
Gardner said in an email to WSKG that while she decided to step away from the village position in 2025, she may be open to returning in the future.
“My term is up in March, I am really focused on my career with [the] New York State Department of Veterans’ Services and my family right now. I’m sure I will run again at another time.”
WSKG reached out to Letteer and did not hear back before publication.
With no mayor and two trustee positions likely vacant, the board will be left with only two members. According to Messmer, the village board needs three members to legally exist, which means it is in desperate need of filling at least one seat. However, Messmer said he would like to have all of the outgoing positions filled.
“For the last seven years that I've been mayor, we've had a very hard time getting people to run for trustee,” said Messmer. “We have a hard time just getting people to help us be election monitors, and there's been a complete lack of involvement by the community in wanting to run for these positions.“
Messmer recently posted about the need for people to fill the open positions in a local online forum and on the village Facebook page. Since then, he said, people have been in touch about both the mayoral position and trustee positions.
“It's a relief because, you know, up until now, nobody's expressed an interest in participating,” said Messmer. “Now we have people [who] want to participate. The village can move forward.”
Messmer told the board in March that he will not run for another term and requested the board find someone to replace him.
However, if in the end no one decides to run and the village is left with just two trustees, the process for dissolution would begin by the state. Messmer said that would mean hiring an attorney to go through the process of dissolving the village according to New York law, and turning over services like water and sewer to the towns of Catherine and Montour.
“The village would just no longer exist,” said Messmer. However, he is hoping that does not happen.
Odessa was incorporated as a village in 1903. It has a population of 553 and is 1.1 square miles, according to 2022 Census reporting data.
“I'd like to see Odessa growing community involvement so that residents are concerned about the village, that they're involved with the village, that they want to have community events,” expressed Messmer. “Get maybe something similar to the Odessa old home day going again, maybe block parties, something where everybody gets together as a community and does more as a community.”
Any interested village residents can reach out to the village offices for more information.
The positions are all part-time. The mayor’s stipend is $2,000 dollars per year and each trustee receives $1,000 dollars annually.