NEWS
Five developers tour potential solar sites in Bowie
City of Bowie officials met with potential solar array developers Wednesday touring three possible locations for a project and conducting lengthy interviews with those firms.
This is the second go-round with solar energy development for the city after it went through a similar process in spring 2016.
In that earlier scenario, the council voted no on a solar project indicated there was not enough savings to justify it, but wanted to continue further negotiations with Bryan Texas Utilities, the city’s bulk power supplier, in regard to its contract which is in year 11 of a 30-year term. There is a five-year out clause.
In 2015 the city negotiated an amendment in its BTU contract that would allow the city to develop up to two megawatts capacity in distributed energy. Bowie purchases a little more than 10 megawatts in bulk power each year with a peak use of 13MW.
Officials from Schneider Engineering have explained one megawatt could help reduce the city’s peak demand as distributors are charged a peak rate based on annual calculations from the four prime months, typically June to September. Those also are considered prime solar production months.
Obtaining one megawatt from another source hopefully at a cheaper rate would reduce the transmission fees. If a solar array was available in close proximity to the city’s power grid, it could go directly into the system without those fees charged by the state and shared by all public power entities to offset the construction of a power grid to transport wind power energy across the state.
City Manager Bert Cunningham, Mayor Gaylynn Burris, Mayor Protem Wayne Bell and Jay Evans, head of the city’s electric department, met with the five firms Thursday. It would take about 10 acres for the system needed to produce 1MW of “green energy.”
Read the full story in the weekend News.
The second community meeting on needs for an emergency room or hospital in Bowie is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Nov. 19 at the Bowie Community Center.
This is the second meeting to discuss these needs following the closure of the Faith Community Health Center emergency room on Oct. 6, just shy of a year of operation. More than 200 people attended that first meeting, where discussion centered on the creation of a taxing district to support any sort of medical facility.
Citizens in the Bowie area are encouraged to attend and take part in these discussions.
The Bowie City Council has moved its Nov. 18 meeting to 6 p.m. on Nov. 19 where three new council members will take the oath of office.
Councilors include Laura Sproles, precinct two, Brandon Walker, precinct one and Laramie Truax, precinct two. After the votes are canvassed and the oaths given, a mayor pro tem will be selected.
The new members will jump right into training as City Attorney Courtney Goodman-Morris provides an orientation and discussion of duties for council members.
City Manager Bert Cunningham will make his monthly report on the following topics: Nelson Street, which opened last Thursday, update on the sewer line replacement project, substation transformer placement and information on medical companies.
A closed executive session on the Laura McCarn vs. City of Bowie lawsuit is scheduled. The suit arose in November 2022 when the city broached selling some 25 acres it owns on Lake Amon G. Carter, originally part of the land purchased for the 500-acre Bowie Reservoir completed in 1985.
McCarn challenges the ownership of the property stating it should revert to the original owners since it was not used for the lake.
This 24.35 acre tract is located at the end of Indian Trail Road surrounded by the lake and the Silver Lakes Ranch subdivision.
One of Bowie’s major thoroughfares, Nelson Street, was reopened Thursday after one busy block has been closed since August 2021 when a section of the street failed.
Construction finally came to an end on Thursday when the street, including the Nelson and Mill intersection were reopened. Mayor Gaylynn Burris, City Manager Bert Cunningham, Councilors TJay McEwen and Stephanie Post, Engineer Mike Tibbetts and Public Works Director Stony Lowrance met at the site Thursday morning and removed the barricades. It only took a few minutes for vehicles to start arriving and drivers were excited to go through on the new roadway.
This section of Bowie has endured flooding and drainage problems for many years and in the summer of 2023 the city council finally bit the bullet and sought bids for the repair work expected to top $3 million. In August 2021 a one block section of Nelson was closed when a large sinkhole appeared on the north side of the street. Traffic had to be diverted including all the school traffic flowing from the nearby junior high and intermediate.
Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.
Top photo – (Left) Mike Tibbetts, engineer with Hayter Engineering, talks with Bowie City Manager Bert Cunningham as they look over the massive drainage project on Nelson Street.
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