Last night, Bowie City Councilors agreed to try and get back in good graces with the surrounding community and retract their intent to stop out-of-city ambulance services–even though it’s a foregone conclusion they’ll lose money.

“I don’t think they were anticipating it but the council was behind it,” city secretary, Sandy Page said.

“You’ve got two situations here,” East Pct. 3 city councilor, Wayne Bell said. “One is the dollar, the almighty dollar to stay in the black. [And] you have the moral aspect of this.” 

“I think the council that we have is willing to lose a little bit of money to provide services for people.”

Bowie city manager Ricky Tow has said that responding to county EMS calls costs the city around $350,000, with Montague County paying the city $30,000 for the service. 

“The city is still anticipating having losses but we’d just like to get them a little bit smaller so we can, basically, keep the city in the black,” Bell said.

Mayor Pro Tem Scott Davis and Tow met with Montague County Judge Rick Lewis Wednesday informing him of Bowie’s desire for the county EMS reversal.

“I have a sister, brother-in-law and family living outside city limits of Bowie,” Bell said. “I have a farm outside the city limits of Bowie. And here I am, a councilman, asking them to cut services off and they’re not going to come get me on my farm?”

“That’s not a good situation.”

Judge Lewis’ office declined to speak, but councilor Bell hopes Montague County will allow the EMS to continue providing lifesaving services to their neighbors outside Bowie’s city limits.