NEWS
Bowie City Council to review water rate hike proposals
The Bowie City Council will meet at 6 p.m. on Dec. 9 considering numerous items of new business including two proposals for a water rate increase.
City Manager Bert Cunningham will offer the two rate plans developed from a recently completed water rate study he gave the council at the last meeting. He explained these increases will help replenish the infrastructure fund which is used to make repairs across the city, as well as help pay for the new raw water pump the state is requiring the city add.
One ordinance offers a 16% rate increase this year and the following year. For 2025 the proposed ordinance would increase the base rate per month by $3.19 for residential inside the city limits with a usage charge increase of .76 cents per 1,000 gallons.
For residential outside the city limits the rate would increase $3.67 and the usage rate by .87 cents per 1,000 gallons.
For commercial and industrial inside the city limits the base rate would go up $3.65 and the usage by .76 cents per 1,000 gallons. Outside city limits the base rate would increase by $4.09 and the usage by .87 cents per 1,000.
The second proposal would be a flat $7.50 charge and a 7% rate increases this year and 7% next year. The $7.50 flat fee would be programmed to expire in 2030.
Residential in the city limits would increase by $1.40 the first year and outside the city limits it
would rise by $3.67. For commercial and industrial inside the city limits the rate will increase by $1.60 the first year and for outside the city limits it will rise $2.05. Each customer would have the $7.50 flat fee.
A change order for the Nelson Street bridge replacement project will be discussed along with the final pay request for the project.
Councilors will consider hangar lease terms for privately built hangars at the City of Bowie Municipal Airport.
There also could be a change for council meeting dates as the panel ponders a move from first and third Mondays to second and fourth Tuesdays for the regular meetings.
Councilors also will make four reappointments to the library board.
In the city manager’s report Cunningham will give updates on Nelson Street project final details, sewer line project phase two, status of substation transformer project, Wichita Street water line final report and Community Development Block Grant.
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.
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
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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