NEWS
County approves budget, proposed tax rate
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
Montague County Commissioners approved a proposed 2020 tax rate and a 2020-21 budget during its Monday session.
The court debated a few areas of contention in the budget including a push from several elected officials to get their reduced rate secretary staff members raised up to full deputy clerk pay. At the end of the back-and-forth, the court said no, this was not the year to make any salary increases.
After all the cuts and changes, the court adopted a budget that would be funded through a proposed tax rate of .5641 cents per $100 in property value. The 2019 rate is .55 cents, so a new rate would be an increase of 1.41 cents.
Tax Assessor Collector Kathy Phillips presented the potential rates. The “no-new-revenue tax rate” formerly the effective rate, is .5641 cents. The voter-approval rate formerly the rollback rate was set at .5858, which is the maximum increase before voters could take action through an election to rollback the rate.
Read the full story on the budget discussion in the mid-week Bowie News.
Members of the Bowie City Council will face a brief agenda when they meet at 6 p.m. on Oct. 13 in the council chambers.
Following routine reports and consent agenda items, the council will consider a resolution authorizing submission of the city’s 2027/2028 Texas Community Development Block Grant application to the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Then council members will consider approving Bob Blackburn for appointment as a reserve police officer with the Bowie Police Department.
Following an executive session, the council will discuss and potentially take action regarding the annual employment evaluations and duties of both the City Secretary and the Municipal Court Judge.
After nearly three months of no rain, Mother Nature brought the showers this past week.
Downtown Bowie rain reports varied from 7 to 8 inches, while the Saint Jo area reported a 10-inch total. The city water plant in Bowie reported 5.55 inches on Sept. 30 with 1.6 Oct. 1-3.
Nocona saw a total of 6.31 inches of rain across Sept. 26 to Oct. 3.
On Oct. 6, Lake Amon G. Carter saw a level of 917.39 mean sea level rising to 81.31% full. Just one week earlier the lake was 73.6% full, while one year ago it was 94.01%. The lake is full at 920msl.
Lake Nocona was 73.7% full at 823.02 on Oct 6. One week earlier it was 70.41% full and one year ago it was 92.41%. The lake is full at 827.5 msl.
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
One Montague County City has joined the battle against any data centers being built in this county and there is a petition drive underway to urge the commissioner’s court to keep data centers out of Montague County.
At a Sept. 28 called meeting of the Saint Jo City Council, officials unanimously approved a resolution stating its opposition to the “siting, permitting, construction or operation of data centers and similar hyperscale computing facilities within the city limits or the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.”
City Secretary Debbie Dennis said several citizens approached Councilor Jack Dunn about their data center concerns and he helped prepare a resolution. The council gave unanimous support.
Read the full story in your Thursday Bowie News.
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