NEWS
Bowie City Council pushing to reopen economy earlier
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
The Bowie City Council wants to get the local economy moving again and would like to jump right into phase two of the governor’s plan due to the low number of active COVID-19 cases.
Councilors debated the issue during its Monday night meeting. Mayor Bill Miller said we have to “open up our country,” and invited State Sen. Pat Fallon to comment via the video conference link.
Fallon said one death is too many, but at this point the predictions for much higher deaths and hospital needs have not come to pass in Texas so he believes it is time to start reopening.
“We have 21,000 hospital beds reserved for COVID-19 patients, 1,550 are occupied. We have capacity. Anyone who needed a bed or a ventilator had one. We are okay on personal protection equipment for medical personnel, but we are running low on gowns. Texas is one of the the least hit as the 40th high state with confirmed cases and 41st in deaths. We hunkered down, but it is time to get out of the foxhole and keep moving,” said Fallon.
He was enthusiastic about the governor’s plan, but said he would have liked to have seen it go a bit further adding they have a lot of questions to clarify. Governor Greg Abbott outlined his plan in a Monday press conference with phase one allowing all retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls to reopen May 1 at 25 percent capacity.
This plan also outlined protocols for certain counties with five or fewer lab confirmed cases of the virus. Those counties may on an individualized basis, increase occupancy limits up to 50 percent for those retail categories listed in phase one. Montague County falls into this category and could jump immediately into phase two.
Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.
Members of the Bowie Independent School District Board of Trustees will meet at 5:30 p.m. on June 16.
The big item on the agenda is the review of superintendent candidate applications and consider possible interview choice. Superintendent Blake Enlow resigned on May 23 and Assistant Superintendent Lee Ann Farris has been serving as the interim.
That item will be in executive session along with professional educator contracts that need to be considered.
On the regular agenda Farris will update the board on education bills passed by the 89th Texas Legislature and their budget impacts, as well as discipline impacts. A budget workshop will be considered. She also will provide information on state assessment and board goals.
Campus administrators and directors will provide updates, along with the finance director.
In action items the board will review Texas Association of School Board update 124, consider changes to the 12-month and 11 employee dates and consider the purchase of a new band trailer not to exceed $80,000.
Due to the June 19 Juneteenth federal holiday the U.S. Post Office will be closed, which moves then Thursday Bowie News to a delivery date on Friday. It will be available in the stores at its regular time.
As of June 9 details on why an appeal bond was revoked on Casey Hall which prompted her arrest in Sulphur Springs on June 2 remain unclear.
The former 97th District Attorney was convicted of misapplication of fiduciary property and theft by a public servant on May 13 in the 16th District Court in Denton County.
The jury gave her a sentence of one year in state jail for misapplication of fiduciary property and six years probation for theft by a public servant.
The 38-year-old Hall was booked into the Hopkins County Jail on June 2 on a warrant after a Denton County judge revoked the appeal bond that was $10,000.
Hall filed her intent to appeal the conviction and sentence, so after posting a $10,000 bond, she was released on May 14 instead of beginning her sentence.
Denton County Court records indicated on June 2 Judge Sherry Shipman, who presided in the trial, declared Hall’s bond insufficient and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
There were rumors Hall may have opted to drop her appeal, but that information has not been confirmed through the court. As of June 9 Hall remained booked into the Hopkins County Jail.
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