[COMMENT: Just before sitting down to upload this article, I received a telephone call at approximately 6:30 PM, informing me that for legal reasons, cited below by Oran Caudle, the Wake Villainy council meeting was cancelled. It remains to be seen whether the other six meetings will go on as scheduled (in just a few minutes) or follow suit and also be cancelled. The legal ramifications of this cancellation are still being analyzed. Undoubtedly there will be additional news in tomorrow's Gazette. Stay tuned. R.]

While officials in four other Bowie County cities plan to meet tonight to discuss creating a proposed water agency, public opinion has been virtually silent on the matter. Besides Wake Village, the city councils of New Boston, Hooks, De Kalb and Maud -- along with the cities of Avery and Annona in Red River County -- plan to meet simultaneously at 7 p.m. at their respective city halls. Their purpose will be to discuss and pass a resolution to form the Wright Patman Regional Water Supply Agency.

Because the seven cities are currently involved in a lawsuit with Texarkana, Texas, and Texarkana Water Utilities, 76th District State Judge Jim White of Mount Pleasant, Texas, has placed a gag order on all parties involved. As of Tuesday afternoon, White said that because the seven cities seeking to start the agency are also a part of the lawsuit, the gag order would also apply to the agency.

While Wake Village Mayor Mike Huddleston already addressed some concerns about the agency, brought up earlier this week, the mayors in at least two of these other Bowie County cities have received very little public input on the matter. New Boston Mayor Johnny Branson and De Kalb Mayor Paul Meadows said they have received very few calls about the proposed agency from residents. "We haven't really gotten a lot of calls expressing an opinion one way or the other," Meadows said.

Maud Mayor Robert Wells declined to comment on whether he has heard much public opinion expressed in his town. A message left Wednesday at the home of acting Hooks Mayor Steven Foltz was not returned by presstime Wednesday.

Oran Caudle, who has been an outspoken critic of the plan, said concerned residents in New Boston, De Kalb and Hooks are expected to attend those three council meetings. Opposers may also show up at the Maud meeting. Caudle himself said he plans to be at the Wake Village City Council meeting, if it is held. Caudle said the Wake Village meeting could possibly be illegal, according to the Texas Open Meetings Handbook, as well as the Texas Local Government Code Chapter 422, which the cities are citing as the law that authorizes the creation of such a water agency.

Caudle said the two laws, particularly as stated in Chapter 422, sub-chapter C (pertaining to the "Public Utility Agency" designation, paragraph 422.054), invalidate a meeting if the city advertises two different time schedules for one meeting in a local publication. Specifically, Caudle points to Wake Village's publication of an announcement in the January 22 issue of the Texarkana Gazette's legal notices. The notice gives a meeting time as being at 6 p.m. today. A second legal notice published in the January 29 issue of the Gazette stated the meeting takes place at 7 p.m. Caudle said he plans to inform Wake Village city officials of the discrepancy today.