APAC Bid Recommended.

The City Council Public Works Committee voted Tuesday afternoon to recommend accepting the bid from APAC, Masters-Jackson for the annual street paving contract. The bid of $23.97 per ton for 5,000 ton of asphalt laid was an increase over APAC’s last year contract price of $21.25 per ton laid, but lower that the other current bid by Blevins Asphalt Construction of $24.35.

Street Commissioner Tom Shelley told the Committee that he was happy with the work done by APAC last year, and with work by Blevins in previous years. His recommendation was to accept the low bid.

In other business the Committee also voted to obtain bids for a proposed expansion of the City’s recycling center services.

Director of Engineering Joe Butler submitted suggestions for services which included the addition of a 25 yard roll off container with a lid for newspaper, an 8 yard container for cardboard, and a 25 yard roll off container with a lid for magazines and office paper. Butler stated that a small area at the recyling center might have to be paved to accommodate the additional containers. Butler will report back with bid proposals.

I’m tempted each year to try and make a summer without air conditioning. It’s a hard habit to break.

It’s not just the fact that the temperature is prob’ly ten degrees lower than it should be most of the time, it’s the fact ya get used ta not hearin’ noise from the neighborhood. I’m not talkin’ ‘bout the boomboxes, I mean the sounds of kids playin’ and neighbor’s talkin’ over the fence. The squirrels rustlin’ the tree branches, those kind of noises. The presence of a personal mechanical environment control is a significant contribution to the isolation of individuals from the community.

Right now it’s easy to be philosophical, I doubt if there’s much decision when the temperature raises above the 80 degree mark.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Dear Tom and Ray

I did a front-end brake job on my ’89 Dodge Ram 150 truck. I took the front rotors off and had them turned at a local shop. I put in new pads and put everything back together correctly.

I drove away the next day and experience a slight vibration that had the sound of a low hum, like big, off-road tires on payment.

It only occurs when applying the brakes firmly. I checked to be sure everything is tightened correctly, but I still have the hum. What could be causing this?-Phil

Ray: What’s causing this? The guy at the local shop that turned your rotors, Phil.

Tom: He did a lousy job. He did, what we call in the trade, a "record cut" because the rotor looks like an old 33 rpm record, but with deeper grooves in it.

Ray: Ideally, the rotors should be perfectly smooth.

You put the rotor on the lathe, and as the rotor spins, you move the blade from the inside to the outside. But if you move the blade too quickly across the spinning rotor, cut too deeply, or use a dull cutting tip, you’ll end up with grooves. And when the brake pads press up against the grooved rotor, you get that hum.

Tom: So you can either wait until the metallic particles in your brake pads wear down the grooves and smooth them out or you can go back and ask them to redo the rotors- assuming you have enough thickness left in the rotor to cut it again. Good luck, Phil