A total of $106,993 has been deposited by the City as the result of insurance compensation for the City Street Department garage the fire that destroyed.

Street Commissioner Tom Shelley said he was only expecting about $92,500 from the insurance company and was pleased with the additional amount.

Plans for a new garage are being drawn. The proposed new facility will be a Morton type metal building of approximately 4,800 square feet. It will have one wall separating the garage area from the work shop, a small office area, and a bathroom.

Director of Engineering Joe Butler and Shelley are estimating the cost to rebuild at around $35 per square foot. Shelley’s main concern is to have the construction completed before this winter sets in.

The insurance settlement included funds for equipment that was lost in the fire. Shelley hopes to replace most of that equipment out of the Department’s regular budget. That would allow all of the insurance money to go toward rebuilding the garage. No major equipment was lost in the fire.

Opening Reception Tonight - Margaret Ebbinghaus Burch from Anderson, MO.

by Robin Putnam, artCentral

To continue with the artCamp 2000 schedule........ we promised to let you know about the second week of classes !!

July 31 - Monday, Cartoons and Comics. Judy Porter, Butler and Jeannie Martin, Springfield, will begin a three day stint by having the kids create their own cartoon chacacters and then their very own comic strip !! They will be treated to a caricature demo by Judy and if time permits she will draw each student !!

August 1 - Tuesday, Judy and Jeannie will continue teaching by having the kids make their own clay and then will work on a 3 dimensioal sculpture project. As this is drying they will begin a drawing on canvas for an acrylic painting. This will carry over to Wednesday’s class.

August 2 - Wednesday, Painting. Each student will work on an acrylic painting. Judy and Jeannie (we call them the dynamic duo) are both artists and work together under the pro-fessional name of "The Fine Tooners". Jeannie teaches art and Judy is a caricature and portrait artist.

August 3 - Thursday will be Printmaking !! Tom Jones is the Jasper High School art teacher and was with us last year. He will show the kids how their designs, drawing and textures created on one surface can be transferred in ink onto another surface !!

August 4 - Friday, Create a Book !! Springfield author and illustrator, Riki Lipe will work with the kids as they create characters, write a story and put illustrations with it to make their very own book !!

August 5 - Saturday, Randy Wright is back for a second day to teach the kids Multi- Media Weaving !! This project will include drawing, making a small loom and using everything form yarn, metal and sticks to beads and paper to weave a masterpiece!!

Registration forms are here and can be picked up anytime. Space is limited so don’t delay !! It’s 12 dollars per day, per student.

Tonight we have the pleasue of bringing you the watercolor, acrylic and colored pencil art work of Anderson artist, teacher, mother and wife....Margaret Ebbinghaus Burch !! The reception is from 6 - 8pm, everyone is invited and warmly welcomed !! Hors D’oeuvres and beverages are served and all well behaved children are also welcome !! It’s always a great time with good art, good friends and good food !!

More.......next week. 358-4404. 1110 E 13th & www. ozarkartistscolony.com under organizations. Our hours are Tues. - Sat. 9am - 3pm and Sundays 12 - 4pm.

Bank of America and Biztro Form Alliance.

news release

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), the largest bank in the United States, and Biztro, Inc. (www.biztro.com), a leading provider of on-line services for emerging businesses, today announced a strategic alliance that will streamline administrative and operational tasks and increase buying power for millions of small businesses.

Bank of America also has acquired an equity stake in Biztro, serving as the lead investor in a third round of equity funding for the company. Biztro raised $33.9 million in this funding round, including investments from major strategic partners and venture capital firms.

"We are pleased that Bank of America, the nation’s leading small business bank, has such confidence in Biztro," said Navin Chaddha, chairman and CEO of Biztro. "Our partnership with Bank of America will allow us to further strengthen our financial services offerings, as well as increase the availability of our operating platform to small businesses nationwide."

Under terms of alliance, Bank of America will offer the Biztro Business Operations PlatformTM to its 1.7 million small business customers through its "Business Center" portal. The Biztro Business Operations Platform eases administrative burdens for small business managers and employees by allowing them to automate many of their day-to-day tasks and activities via the Web. Through Biztro, small business employees are given immediate access to key operations functions and checklists that standardize administrative and human resource processes, including insurance and benefits plans, payroll, employee expense reporting and office supply management.

The Bank of America "Business Center" will serve as the portal that enables small business customers to access the operating platform, as well as an increasingly rich and integrated offering of information, financial products and services, and marketplace communities for business-to-business commerce. The portal will be intuitive and interactive, allowing customers to communicate directly with the bank and to personalize the site to meet their needs.

"We believe our alliance with Biztro will create new value for our small business customers by providing the tools and information they need to run their businesses better and smarter," said Jim Lientz, president of the Mid-South Banking Group and Small Business champion at Bank of America. "We want to help them succeed by reducing administrative burdens and allowing them to focus on what’s really important: building their core business."

In addition, Biztro plans to integrate access to numerous Bank of America offerings, such as marketplace communities and a full range of financial products and services, into its operating platform.

Talkin’ to a few youngsters will get ya straight on their priorities. Twelve days till school’s out one informed me.

Plans for summer are comin’ to the top of the list for most. ‘Course there are lots a choices, includin’ doin’ nothin’ in particular. As much as a lota folks like ta see some definite plans laid out, there is some justification for not plannin’ at all for the days outa school. Summer opportunities seldom are expected. Part of the fun of bein’ a kid. Fishin’ holes, bicycle ridin’, sandlot baseball are hard to put into a defined plan of activities. They just seem to happen.

‘Course most of us that have reach some level of adulthood yearn for just one more childhood summer. Not likely.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Oak Street health & herb

May day is traditional for planting flowers and herbs. It is the "safest" day to start planting herbs as they are so sensitive to cold and transplanting. My comfrey is blooming at this time standing tall and pretty. Don’t know what happened, but my white flowering comfrey did not come back this year. I have not had as good of luck with the slick leaved comfrey either.

Although comfrey has been the subject of controversy in past years as to weather one should take it internally or not, I still consider it one of my most favorite and important herbs. My Dad used to throw a handful or two a day to his animals and the vet always said they had good strong bones. I use it on any open wound or cut just like the Native Americans may have. After cleaning the area, I wet the root powder and apply it with some water or TT oil. It doesn’t look pretty, but it works well for healing the wound and taking away the soreness. In the old days, one could make a tea of the comfrey leaves to soothe an unruly stomach and even calm an ulcer.

The search for health is directly tied to the search for longevity. In a useful hint from Beer’s Almanac 1800, it is noted that "the difference between rising every morning at six and at eight, in course of forty years (supposing a man to go to bed at the same time he otherwise would) amounts to 20,000 hours, or three years, 121 days and 16 hours, which will afford eight hours a day for exactly ten years; so that it is the same as if ten years of life were added, in which we could commend eight hours every day for the cultivation of our minds, and the dispatch of our beliefs." So, maybe the answer isn’t in a bottle of pills, but in the sands of time!!