NEWS
Bowie expects difficult budget year due to infrastructure needs
By BARBARA GREEN
Bowie city council members spent three and a half hours Tuesday night in their first budget workshop reviewing figures, data and explanations about where the city budget may be heading for the next fiscal year.
Mayor Larry Slack told the group there will certainly be some tough decisions due to some major infrastructure problems that need to be addressed.
“We will have to see if we can work it in the budget or do something else. We need to let the staff know a direction,” said the mayor.
Department heads received a memo directing them to return their department requests to the city manager by June 15 in order to prepare the budget proposal by July 15, as required by the city charter.
Slack told the council he expects a difficult budget year so he wants the council to have all the time and information it needs to make decisions.
The pressing infrastructure problems came to the forefront this week as heavy rain filled runoff drains, especially in the flow that runs from State Highway 59 near Allsup’s east to Kiwanis Park and then toward Lamb, Rock and Patterson.
Read the full story in the weekend News.
Pictured: Heavy rains continue to cause deterioration in an aging drainage system that serves a large residential area in Bowie. This portion of Lamb Street at Nelson has been closed due to collapse of the street at the culvert. (Photo by Barbara Green)
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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