City Of Odessa Texas

Housing Developers Making Changes To Deal With Water Restrictions 06/23/11

CBS 7 News
Robert Guaderrama
rguaderrama@cbs7.com
June 23, 2011

West Texas- New housing developments are going up all around west Texas with grass-less lawns. City officials tell CBS 7, developers are required to stick to new 2-day water restrictions and developers are having to make some changes to their plans.

Landscape experts say there's no way for new grass to survive the 2-day watering restrictions, they're advising people to hold off on installing grass or seek alternative landscaping.

"It's entirely appropriate to get ahead of this, we can be smart about this now and prevent it from becoming a dyer situation," said Bruce Pridgen, El Jardin Fine Gardens.

"These restrictions are across the board," said Andrea Goodson, City of Odessa, PIO.

Developers and landscapers are not exempt from water restrictions.

"This is the time for landscapers and developers to really step up and think outside the box, complying with the restrictions but making it attractive and pretty," said Goodson.

Betenbough Homes has changed their landscape plans in support of conservation.

"We've given our homeowners the alternative to keep the tree and flower bed, without installing the sod," said Corey Lusk, Project Manager, Betenbough Homes.

Sod that requires daily watering to survive. Though this might seem like a hit to the landscaping industry, Betenbough says they're landscapers are still busy.

"Betenbough homes doesn't feel like our landscaper is losing business, we're restructuring it and putting it in different areas," said Lusk.

Bruce Pridgen with El Jardin Fine Gardens says business has changed from installing new grass to maintaining grass in our drought.

"I and friends in the business are busy with people wanting their systems repaired so that they perform as well as possible," said Pridgen.

Pridgen tells CBS 7, landscapers around the Basin are urging city officials to develop a permanent water conservation policy, to lessen the impact of future droughts on our water supply.


The City of Midland is issuing variances to allow specific companies to water outside the restriction times if there are compelling circumstances. An approval is first required by the City Manager. Meanwhile the City of Odessa is not issuing any variances at this time.

Follow the Piper: THE JACKRABBITS OF ODESSA, TEXAS

Do you remember when I told you about the herd of colorful bison in Oklahoma City ?  Well, my friend and faithful blog reader, Aunt Ann, wrote a comment to tell me that in Odessa, Texas, which is near where she used to live, they have big, colorful jackrabbits all over town.  So because it is the Year of the Rabbit, I did some research on this topic, and I found pictures of the jackrabbits in Odessa, and now I am going to share some of these pictures with you. But first I will tell you that a jackrabbit is not really a rabbit.  A jackrabbit is a hare.  And the difference between a rabbit and a hare is that a hare has longer ears and longer legs than a rabbit has.  Also, rabbits live in burrows in the ground, and hares make a little scooped-out nest on top the ground.  Hares are born with fur and with their eyes open, and rabbits are not.  The way that jackrabbits got their name is that they reminded people of burros, because of their long ears.  So people started calling them "jackass rabbits," and later just "jackrabbits." Anyway, it turns out that the city of Odessa already had a jackrabbit statue before they got all the painted ones.  This statue was called the "World's Largest Jack Rabbit," and the man who had the idea to make it was former Attorney General John Ben Shepperd, when he was the Odessa Chamber of Commerce president in 1962.  Everyone liked the idea of having a statue, and since there are so many jackrabbits in Texas, that's what kind of statue they decided to get.  It's made of fiberglass, and it's 8 feet tall. The jackrabbit statue cost $2,300 to make, and it is named Jack Ben Rabbit.  One time some school children tried to get a mate for the jackrabbit because they thought he looked lonely.  But they did not succeed in this.  Another time some people tried to steal the statue, so now it is bolted to a cement slab.  Lots of tourists come to see the jackrabbit and have their picture taken with it.  Close to the statue, there is a historical marker, and here's what it says: True plains Rabbit.  Lives only in the west.  Burro-like ears gave him his name.  Color is protective, blending with sand and dry grass.  Very long legs make him a swift runner, clocked at speeds to 45 miles an hour.  Object of hunts with Greyhounds.  Was prized by plains Indians for food and fur.  To white man a reminder of desert-hard life.  In drouth and depression, meat source for thousands.  Subject of tall tales.  Actual hero of world's only Jackrabbit Rodeo, in Odessa, May 1932.