NEWS
Bowie Council to sell COs for projects
Numerous infrastructure and development topics face the Bowie City Council when it convenes at 6 p.m. on Oct. 23.
The city is expected to move forward with financing the Nelson Street drainage project and a new ambulance when councilors take action on the second reading of the ordinance to sell certificates of obligation to the tune of $2,750,000.
During the process of the sale the Bowie attained an A+ credit rating which should help attain the best interest rate possible. The COs will finance an ambulance at and estimated price of $380,000 and the rest for the Nelson repairs.
There will be a public hearing on a rezone request for 9.55 acres on U.S. Highway 287 and State Highway 59 South from commercial to light industrial for a proposed development that requires light industrial zoning for truck traffic.
City Manager Bert Cunningham said a developer would like to create a gas station at the corner property, which previously had a station and for former Jim Bowie Restaurant. Action on the request is on the agenda.
Officials from Bowie 4B Sales Tax Corporation will discuss an expenditure for a park enhancement project that could bring a pickleball court to the community.
Other topics will be audit proposals for the outside audit, approval of the 2023 tax roll, cash ballots for the Montague County Tax Appraisal Board of Director, ordinance changing variable speed limits to 6:45 a.m.. to 4:30 p.m., and city manager’s report on the due diligence call, solid waste grant, investment training and a report on Texas Department of Transportation work.
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.
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.
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.
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