NEWS
Tensions rise as county VSO asks court to rescind assistant VSO appointment
By BARBARA GREEN, editor@bowienewsonline.com
The battle over trying to increase county “secretarial staff” pay appeared to be over as the Montague County Commissioner’s adopted the 2021 budget without increasing those five positions, but it moved to a different front as one supervisor asked to have his assistant’s appointment rescinded.
Tensions rose Monday morning as Veteran’s Service Officer Colm Murphy made the request to a less than receptive court. Several years ago the court provided five reduced rate secretarial staff positions in lieu of funding a full-time person. In some instances the office part-time person moved up to this position.
During this year’s budget process several officials asked the position be moved up by $18,200 to be a full deputy due to expanded responsibilities. Tax Assessor Kathy Phillips and Murphy both made pitches in their budgets requests, and they were backed by County Clerk Glenda Henson and District Clerk Lesia Darden, who also have similar jobs in their offices. All of them indicated the jobs have evolved to involve much more than their original description.
In the VSO office, last fall Murphy asked to send this office assistant to training that would allow her to become certified and to work as his assistant accessing veteran records and working with the Veterans’ Administration. He asked the court to rescind her appointment as assistance VSO if she was not going to be compensated accordingly.
Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.
The Bowie City Council will meet at 6 p.m. on June 23.
The agenda includes both old and new business items.
City Manager Bert Cunningham will make his report on the 2026-27 budget process, bid opening for the Glenn Hills lift station on July 16 and the bid for Rock and Pillar repairs.
In new business a pair of planning and zoning committee recommendations for replats at 107 E. Nelson and 412 Green will be reviewed. An ordinance adopting an office of emergency management amending a present ordinance will be offered.
Old business will see the second reading of the pickleball court reservation fee ordinance and the ordinance prohibiting drilling and mining or the reopening of an abandoned well or mine in any public park in the city limits.
A HEAT ADVISORY will be in effect from noon until 9 p.m. today (Thursday). Please plan accordingly.
Hear Audio Alert:https://hrpow.us/oeFZANN
Montague County Sheriff Marshall Thomas has confirmed human skeletal remains were recovered on June 13 in the Sunset area, and they could possibly be those of a flight attendant believed to have been murdered almost a year ago in the Fort Worth.
The murder suspect, Dennis William Day, 66, admitted in June 2025 to strangling Rana Soluri, 47, an Envoy flight attendant who lived with Day during that last year. She was reported missing by a co-worker on June 11 and had not been seen or heard from since March 2025.
Day initially denied any involvement, but later admitted to the murder and indicated he dumped her body somewhere in the Montague County area. Lawmen have scoured the areas in questions in both Montague and Wise County, but found nothing.
Sheriff Thomas said on June 13 the SO received a call of possible skeletal remains in the Brushy Creek area north of Poss Dyer Lane on Farm-to-Market 1749. A deputy went to the scene and confirmed it was human remains.
Investigators responded and kept the scene secure overnight until staff from the University of North Texas Forensic Anthropology Center could arrive and made the recovery on June 14. A Texas Ranger and staff from the Fort Worth Police Department also were on scene.
“There is no determination made yet on how long it has been there,” said Thomas. “The anthropologist was pleased to recover most of the skeleton in these conditions. Heavy rains previously made the past searches difficult. We are working jointly with Fort Worth to make an identification and if it is the victim in their homicide.”
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