NEW BOSTON, Texas - Retired Bowie County Sheriff James Prince received a proclamation honoring his long service to the county at Monday's Bowie County Commissioners Court meeting.
"I first want to thank God for allowing me to serve all 20 years, because I couldn't have done it without Him," Prince said. "And I also to want to thank God for all the people I had the chance to serve with here in Bowie County as well as the Commissioner Court and all the citizens throughout the county. Thank you all and I want to thank Jeff Neal (the current sheriff) for all his help."
Prince retired at the end of last year as the county's longest serving sheriff.
In other business, commissioners agreed to vote against continuing to enforce a mandate that both courthouse visitors and employees wear masks, as well as other face coverings. This vote also applied to other county buildings. However Bowie County Judge Bobby Howell took a lone vote in favor of retaining protective measures, saying after the meeting that he believed the county should stay committed to the Center for Disease Control guidelines.
Commissioners also agreed to sell a county owned 2007 Chevrolet Impala for $851, which was the highest bid.
Court members further agreed to re-appoint Larry Meadows, Ron Rogers and Steve Hawkins to serve another two years, and Ben Franks and John Paul Sellers to each serve an additional year, on the county's Emergency District No. 5 Board of Commissioners.
Following a brief executive closed session focusing on security, personnel and litigation matters, Howell said the county is almost finished with completely recovering from the Dec. 6 data breach.
"I think we will be fully operational again in about two weeks," Howell said. The only real damage we suffered was a loss of time, because we had to shut down and that caused a major loss time, catching up on court records."