NEWS
Saint Jo Council meets tonight
The Saint Jo City Council will conduct its public hearings for the 2025-26 budget and 2025 tax rate in a meeting at 6 p.m. on Sept. 10.
After the hearing the council will convene into its regular agenda, which opens with the 2023-24 outside audit from the staff of Freemon, Shepard and Story Certified Public Accountants.
The meeting then goes into the 2025 financials where the proposed tax rate of .518223 centers per $100 in property value will be examined. That breaks out into a maintenance and operation rate of .363740 cents and debt service of .155483 cents. The present rate is .513334 cents.
A balanced budget of $1,672,706.05 will be reviewed by the council to serve revenue and expenses for 2025-26. The Economic Development 4A and 4B board budgets also will be presented.
In the general fund budget one full-time and one part-time person have been added to public works. An additional $72,959.44 was added to capital improvements that will be split between the streets and other infrastructure needs. Health insurance went up $33 per person, while the property liability remained the same.
Waste Connections has exercised its right for a consumer price index based increase of .59% effective Oct. 1. The total increase for trash service will be $3 per utility account for pass-through costs states the agenda.
The water base rate was increased by $2 for a $17 base rate for 1,000 gallons per utility account. The ambulance subsidy also will be increase by $2 per utility account for a total pass-through cost of $5.
The 4A budget is balanced with revenue and expenses of $135,000 and the 4B budget is $83,127.32 with projected revenue of $50,000.
The final agenda item is a request from Angelica Rojas, Gilberto Santos and Denise Thurman for building plans for West Williams and Mill Street.
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.
-
NEWS3 years agoSuspect indicted, jailed in Tia Hutson murder
-
NEWS4 years agoWreck takes the life of BHS teen, 16
-
NEWS4 years ago2 hurt, 1 jailed after shooting incident north of Nocona
-
NEWS3 years agoMurder unsolved – 1 year later Tia Hutson’s family angry, frustrated with no arrest
-
NEWS3 years agoSO investigating possible murder/suicide
-
Show us something good9 years agoCountry music star children perform in Bowie
-
100th Birthday4 years agoLooking back at the 1958 Centennial edition of The Bowie News
-
NEWS3 years ago
Sheriff’s office called out to infant’s death