Dog Park Memorandum.

The Carthage Dog Park Committee won the approval of the City Council last week for an official Memorandum of Understanding. The document spells out the specific role of the Committee and the City’s commitment.

The basic agreement allows that the Committee’s function is as a fund raising organization that will attempt to raise the $81,000 anticipated to be needed to complete the project. The City has agreed to use a portion of Municipal Park as the location.

According to the agreement, the City will retain ownership of all improvements made to the property along with control of existing or future improvements.

The Committee agrees to supply dispensers and supplies for participants of the Dog Park to clean up after their dogs. Park Department employees will not be assigned that task.

The Committee may propose rules and regulations for the use of the Dog Park, but any such proposals will need the approval of the City Council. The Committee has three years to provide the funding.

NASCAR THIS WEEK

By Monte Dutton

Sponsored by Curry Automotive

2009 Season Highlights

Men, moments and great deeds that will be remembered from NASCAR, circa 2009:

--Jimmie Johnson became the first driver in NASCAR history to win four consecutive championships. He broke a tie with Cale Yarborough, who won three straight (1976-78).

--At age 50, Mark Martin, competing full-time for the first time in three years, finished second in the Sprint Cup standings. Martin, who has never won a championship, was the runner-up for the fifth time in his career.

--Ron Hornaday Jr. became the first four-time champion in the history (1995-present) of the Camping World Truck Series.

--Kyle Busch won a total of 20 races in NASCAR’s so-called three "major touring series": four in Sprint Cup, nine in Nationwide and seven in Truck.

--Brad Keselowski pulled an upset at Talladega that required him to tangle with Carl Edwards on the final straight of the final lap. Edwards’ Ford left the ground, ripped through the catch fencing and tumbled over and over numerous times. Rules were changed and fencing raised and bolstered for the latter race at the track.

--Joey Logano’s New Hampshire victory made him the youngest driver ever to win at NASCAR’s top level.

--Hendrick Motorsports took the top three spots in the Cup standings, with Johnson first, Martin second and Jeff Gordon third.

--Tony Stewart led the regular-season point standings, and both he and Ryan Newman made the Chase in Stewart’s first season as a team owner.

--Matt Kenseth won the season’s first two races but struggled afterward, and like Kyle Busch, failed to make the Chase. Kenseth’s victory in the Daytona 500 was a first for owner Jack Roush.

--The leading race winner of 2008, Carl Edwards, failed to win at the Cup level in 2009.

--The sport’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., had the worst season of his career and was the only Hendrick Motorsports driver who failed to make the Chase.

--NASCAR’s suspension of driver Jeremy Mayfield for alleged substance abuse spilled over into the courts and touched off an unseemly series of lurid allegations from both sides.

--Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Junior Johnson, William H.G. France and William C. France were selected as the first five inductees in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, currently under construction in Charlotte and scheduled to open in May 2010.

--Juan Pablo Montoya, from Bogota, Colombia, qualified for the Chase and blossomed into NASCAR’s first foreign-born star. The most improved driver in the Sprint Cup Series was an Australian, Marcos Ambrose.

Walked out the back door the other day and saw prob’ly twenty or thirty red birds congregated in one of our bushes. Bein’s as how there were both male and female types, they musta been havin’ some sort of a social gatherin’ I suppose.

The birds are most likely a little confused by the recent weather patterns as much as us humans.

The squirrels have been speedin’ around like crazy too. Jumpin’ from branch to branch, up and down, ‘round and ‘round.

It’s hard ta imagine those folks livin’ in the big city, not gettin’ the advantage of watchin’ the ever’day animals we take for granted. ‘Course, they aren’t so cute when they start eatin’ from my strawberry patch.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

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CLICK and CLACK

TALK CARS

Dear Tom and Ray:

I have a 1997 Plymouth Breeze with 110,000 miles on it. I changed the brake light bulb in the passenger-side taillight, and now none of the lights in that taillight works. When I turn on my right blinker, the indicator on the dashboard blinks very fast. I’m thinking I may have blown a fuse, but I don’t know which one to look at. Any suggestions before another kind policeman pulls me over to give me a warning? - Margi

Tom: Well, if you still have your owner’s manual (that’s the flat thing still wrapped in cellophane under all the non-working pens and old maps of Historic Boise, Idaho, in your glove box), there’s a map of your fuse box in there. You can identify which fuse controls your taillights and how many amps it is, and replace it with a new one.

Ray: But I doubt that’s going to solve your problem. More likely, I think you put in the wrong bulb.

Tom: This car uses a single, two filament bulb for the taillight, and the other for both the brake light and the directional. When the brake light and the directional are operating simultaneously, it cuts off that brake/directional filament to create the flashing effect.

Ray: If you just went to the store and picked out a bulb that looked like your old one, you may have taken a one-filament bulb that looks identical but doesn’t work in your car.

Tom: The fast-flashing directional signal is a sign that a bulb is not working.

Ray: So here’s what you do. Go to an auto-parts store, and ask for a 3057 bulb. That’s the number of the bulb you need. And than make sure you push it in all the way.

Tom: How do you know if it’s installed correctly? The lights work again.