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Burn ban tabled as rains green up area; budget debates continue

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By BARBARA GREEN
Thanks to recent rains that have “greened up” the county, Montague County Commissioners declined to implement a ban on outdoor burning Monday tabling the ban for consideration at the next meeting.
Commissioner Mark Murphey, also a Nocona volunteer firefighter, said the county is below the drought level in the KBDI due to the recent rainfall. A check of the index shows a range of 600-700 in the southern part of the county to 400-500 in the northwest, plus a small patch of green in the 300-400 range. The index has a maximum of 800 for full drought.
Murphey also said he talked to five local fire chiefs and all but one agreed they don’t need a ban at this time although it should be closely monitored. Commissioner Bob Langford said a little more than a week ago it looked like things were heading toward a ban with the triple-digit temperatures and no rain. Since that time rains ranging from one to four inches across the county have fallen creating improved conditions. The ban was tabled.
The court breezed through an agenda of mostly routine business before going into a budget workshop.
Sheriff Marshall Thomas provided a update on the six-month old K-9 program with Deputy Chase Pelton and Ace. The K-9 team has seen 35 deployments and made 38 arrests.

The district attorney also had her request to have Kevin Benton come work part-time at her office to wrap a few investigations he has been spearheading before he takes over at justice of the peace in the new year. A lengthy round of budgets hearings also were conducted.

Read the full story in the mid-week News.

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Medical needs community meeting on Nov. 19

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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.

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Bowie Council members to take oath of office

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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.

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Council celebrates reopening of Nelson by moving the barricades

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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.

City council members and city staff lifted the barricades from Nelson Street Thursday morning reopening it to traffic after more than two years of repairs. (Photo by Barbara Green)
Large concrete culverts now take water under Nelson Street.
The creek that flows through the former park has been rip wrapped to slow erosion.
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