Visioning Committee Formed.

The City Council approved the formation and appointment of members for a new Downtown Visioning Committee during the regular Council meeting Tuesday evening.

According to the document approved, the charge of the group will be:

"The Downtown Visioning Committee shall represent the City in the community-university collaborative visioning process. Serving as the surrogate client in the visioning process, the Downtown Visioning Committee shall seek to represent the various community constituency groups which they represent to the fullest of their ability. The committee members shall be a conduit for the transmission of information to and from the various community constituency groups which they represent.

The Downtown Visioning Committee shall be responsible for promoting the visioning process throughout the community and seeking to enfranchise the full community into the process.

The Downtown Visioning Committee members shall attend all public meetings where the community’s vision is being discussed.

The Downtown Visioning Committee shall receive and review the document prepared by the Center for Community Studies, the visioning tool kit.

The Downtown Visioning Committee shall continue to meet after receiving the document to prepare the community’s long term vision plan.

The Downtown Visioning Committee shall devise a process for public review of their long term vision.

The Downtown Visioning Committee shall prepare and present a resolution to the City Council recommending the acceptance of their long term vision plan."

Appointed to the Committee were: H.J. Johnson, Janet Stafford, Jerry Gilpin, Jim Honey, John Nicholas, Keith Zoromski, Kip Smith, Mildred Guzman, Ray Mathis, Ron Stiles, Wendi Douglas, Nate Kelly, Jackie Boyer,Diane Sharits, Sabrina Drackert.

NASCAR THIS WEEK

By Monte Dutton

Racing at Daytona Will be Just Fine

Not that this is unusual, me seeing something a bit differently. From what I’ve read, here’s a minority opinion. The Supreme Court of my world often overturns me.

I don’t think the new pavement at Daytona International Speedway is going to make all that much difference.

It’s not that I don’t think pavement in general makes a difference. At most tracks, it makes the racing worse for a while. At most tracks, however, the cars are going as fast as they can. At the two so-called restrictor-plate tracks (Daytona and Talladega), the cars are wide open all the way around. Adhesion isn’t an issue. I didn’t see that much difference a few years back at Talladega, and I think the hosannas currently being chanted to the heavens at Daytona are greatly overstated.

I’ve got a feeling I’m going to long for the old bumpy days, though I certainly don’t begrudge the project being completed. Quite obviously, dating back to the embarrassment of last year’s Daytona 500, it was long overdue. But, if it had been me, I would have confounded the engineers by instructing them to "repave it bumpy."

Based on the recent Goodyear tire tests, we are being led to believe that every lap is going to produce five lead changes. Well, guess what? If that happens, it won’t really be a good thing. It will open the door to fast cars at the expense of fast drivers. I expect it will improve the statistics, not the racing.

That’s obviously what has happened at Talladega recently. In 2009, the races there got some pans from critics because the first three quarters of the races there were pretty ho-hum: drivers riding in place, lap after lap, while some of the real contenders were in the back, figuratively whistling and learning new tricks with their yo-yos.

The biggest reason Talladega enjoyed record numbers in the two 2010 races was what, basically, was little more than what the Air Force calls "formation flying." The first 140 laps or so were pretty much the same as the tire tests held at Daytona. Drivers experimented, trying to figure whom they could trust and whom they couldn’t, whether their cars were faster at the top or bottom of the banking, etc. A.J. Allmendinger was as likely to be at the front as Kevin Harvick. Allmendinger was much more likely to be at the front than many of the contenders, who bided their time back in the nether reaches of the field, knowing they had cars that could be catapulted to the front in the latter laps.

The fascinating part of plate races now is watching the contenders rise and the pretenders fall. That’s when the racing really gets hairy, wild and wooly, and various other grooming-derived descriptions.

Sometimes I wonder how the rest of us would handle havin’ to get elected to our job ever’ couple a four years.

I suppose those in business run for reelection ever’time a customer walks in the door. The difference is customers vote with dollar bills. If they don’t feel they are gettin’ value, they go somewhere else to vote.

‘Course ya don’t have the opportunity to vote anywhere ya want to for local and County officials. Prob’ly why folks take area politics so serious, it effects their day to day livin’.

The thing that ticks me off is when a business does such a good job of gettin’ folks ta vote in their place, it gets too popular. "Nobody goes there," as Yogi says, "it’s always too crowded."

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

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Weekly Columns

CLICK and CLACK

TALK CARS

Dear Tom and Ray:

I always change my own oil on my cars. I let the car sit overnight and change the engine oil the next day. My daughter said that it would be better to change the oil when the engine is hot, like when I get home from work. So...which is the preferred method? - Will.

Ray: Your daughter’s right, Will. The reason we change the oil when it’s warm is because it flows better and comes out faster.

Tom: It’s not a big deal. But when the oil is cold, it’s more viscous (it’s thicker), so it drains out more slowly. And even if you’re willing to wait longer for it to drain out, it’s likely that a bit more oil will remain coated on the inside walls of the engine when you’re done. Not a lot more than if the oil was warm, but a little more.

Ray: So I’d say a warm oil change is a little bit better.

Tom: Now, there is one major disadvantage to a hot-engine oil change: It hurts! First of all, when you remove the drain plug, if you don’t know what you’re doing, hot oil can run down your arms. Ray: A lot of today’s cars have oil filters that are really burried and hard to reach. So the chances of burning yourself while trying to unscrew on of those is quite high.

Tom: So, for that reason, here’s what we recommend. First, don’t do the oil change when the engine is red-hot. Let it sit for half and hour or an hour before starting your work. The oil will still be warm enough to flow easily, but the exhaust manifold won’t be glowing red and 800 degrees.

Tom: Or just change the oil when the engine is cold. You’ll get 98 percent of the benefit and keep all your arm hair.