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Courthouse exit study explores options

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By DANI BLACKBURN
Montague County Commissioners accepted a Life Safety Egress Compliance Study, outlining solutions for fire exit issues in the courthouse when they met on Monday.
The study was authorized earlier this month after a meeting with representatives of the State Fire Marshal’s Office and James Malanaphy with the Texas Historical Commission.
The meeting helped officials gain direction in correcting the fire exit problems in its 104-year-old courthouse. It was one of 14 violations of the Life Safety Code outlined in a July fire safety inspection report by James Scott McAnallen, deputy state fire marshal.
Eleven of the 14 violations were repaired swiftly, while county officials have been working to repair the other violations,including installing a detection system in the building. A second fire escape and exit from the third and fourth floor is the most complex problem.
Dick Bundy, president of the architectural firm Bundy, Young, Sims and Potter Architects, Wichita Falls, offered proposed modifications that would include the existing parole office being dedicated as an exit way and area of refuge for the third and fourth floors.

Read the full story in the midweek News.

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Bowie Council meets June 23

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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.

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City of Bowie reports heat advisory today

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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

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Sheriff confirms human remains found in Sunset area

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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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