The contract for services to negotiate for acquisition of property for a new Carthage municipal airport will pay a flat fee as opposed to a percentage of the selling price. Authorization for the contract is scheduled for vote at this evening’s regular Council meeting. The ordinance comes with a clause that allows both readings during one meeting, but still requires a majority of the Council to move to second reading. The contract would make Joyce Liggett of Pro-100 Realtors the negotiator.

The document allows for a $2,000 retaining fee to be paid that is not contingent on the real estate contracts being consummated or terminated. If negotiations are successful and the City purchases the property an additional fee of $13,000 will be paid. If the negotiator obtains signed purchase agreements within forty-five days an additional $2,500 will be paid.

The contract specifies eight joining parcels of property to be acquired that are owned by seven different owners. The largest parcel, 92 acres, is owned by Larry and Janice Peters. Henry and Dorothy Peters own three parcels totaling 85.9 acres.

Ben Johnson Spoke at Springfield.

news release from Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson, Jasper Co. Commissioner, spoke at the Southwest District Health Office in Springfield on Friday, June 9, the S.W. District Health Office requested Mr. Johnson to speak on "County Guidelines for Bid Process," and "Developing and Adopting Ordinances."

The S.W. District includes 22 counties in S.W. Missouri. Others who spoke and participated in round table discussion include: Tony DeLong, Stone County Presiding Commissioner; Stanley Whitehurst, Webster County Clerk; and Sue Entlicher, Polk County Clerk.

Commentary

Martin "Bubs" Hohulin
State Representative, District 126

I would like to thank everyone that responded to my column where I asked your opinion on reducing the size of the Missouri House of Representatives.

Many of you responded and an overwhelming majority of you said that you didn’t want to see the size of the House reduced. Since so many of you responded with an opinion on that issue, I am going to throw out another issue to you that didn’t pass this Session, but one that I am sure we will see again next Session.

The issue is funding for a new stadium for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. I can hear you saying now, "Why is he even asking about that, isn’t that the issue he ran on the first time?" You’re right, that was one of the issues I ran on the first time and I was, and still am, vehemently opposed to the taxpayers writing a check for stadiums. This funding idea has a different twist that I think is at least worthy of debate.

I had always said that if I could be shown that a project would pay for itself, I would consider supporting it. The proposal here is that the Cardinals put up about 1/3 of the money to start with. Then, they are asking to be allowed to keep the state, city, and county sales tax generated at the stadium and use it to pay for the remainder. When you consider ticket prices run from about $10.00 to over $75.00 each and the amount of sodas, beer, hot dogs, peanuts, and other concessions, the amount for each season is considerable.

There are up and down sides to this proposal. The up side is that it would have to pay for itself or it won’t happen. The down side is that there has to be a line drawn somewhere. For instance, someone could say that they want to keep the sales tax generated in their grocery store, or car dealership, or restaurant, or whatever, to build a bigger grocery store, car dealership, restaurant, or whatever. What would qualify and what would be the justification for one venture to be accepted and another to not be accepted?

This issue will again surface next Session, and I’d like to know what you think. Rest assured that I am still opposed to giving teams a blank check and saying go to it, but on this proposal, I think the debate will be interesting. Please feel free to contact me at House Post Office, State Capitol, Jefferson City, MO 65101, or 1-800-878-7126, or mhohulin@services.state.mo.us for your questions, comments, or advice.

If ever’one would get out the calculators. What the City is lookin’ at for a new airport is just shy of 200 acres.

Just ta give some room for error, let’s say a realtor gets somewhere ‘tween five and ten percent for puttin’ a deal together. Some bigger deals that are put together by promoters may drop down to as little as 2-3 percent. Let’s assume that the City is gettin’ the best deal possible for the $17,500 it’s proposin’ to pay a negotiator. At two percent that’d make the property worth $875,000. At the ten percent rate the property value would only be $175,000.

Now I’m not proposin’ that either of these are plausible prices, just an exercise to establish some perimeters for the average joe to see where the realms of possibility may lie.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

McCune Brooks Hospital

Health Notes

Health & Nutrition by Judith Sheldon

FACTS ABOUT FATS: The most talked-about dietary factors, fats and cholesterol, are often misunderstood.

Here’s a simplified description taken from a Consumer Information release from the United States General Service Administration:

There’s "good" cholesterol (HDL) and "bad" cholesterol (LDL). Cholesterol is carried in our blood by lipoproteins, which are chemical compounds made up of fats and protein.

If you see the prefix, lipo, used in a word, you can assume fat is involved. Liposuction, for example, means sucking out fat in a plastic surgery procedure.

When a lipoprotein contains more fat than protein, it’s called a low density lipoprotein, or LDL. This cholesterol is more likely to deposit fatty buildup in the arteries, which can lead to heart attacks. This is why it’s called the "bad" cholesterol.

HDL cholesterol can actually help reduce the overall amount of cholesterol in the blood, which means it can protect against heart disease. So, of course, this is the "good" cholesterol.

Have your cholesterol levels checked regularly by your doctor. To lower your risk of heart disease, keep your cholesterol level below 200; your LDL cholesterol under 130.