City Budget Guidelines.

Budget Committee sets Goals for next year’s Expenditures.

"• Department Heads are to prepare a "Maintenance" request which focuses on maintaining core services as currently provided by the department. No additional services or enhancements in service levels will be considered this year due to current economic conditions. Further, in light of the overall and regional economic concerns, Agencies and Department Heads shall strive to submit a budget request that reflects a reduction of 5% from the previous year’s budget. Any increases in expenditure from 2011 levels will require separate written justification to be provided to .the City Administrator for review on submission of the budget packet.

"• Department Heads are to "hold the line" on personnel. No net increase in head count will be submitted as part of the maintenance submission. Any proposed additional increase in head count will be submitted separately as part of the additional or enhanced service level request and shall be fully offset by corresponding increased revenues generate by the position or program."

The neighbor kid has onea those two wheel scooters that seem ta be the "new" thing. I doubt if he’d believe that as a kid I had a similar mode of transportation.

The one we owned had larger hard rubber tires. It was a faded red with bright yellow wheels. The nice added feature was ours had a kick stand. A triangular shaped gizzmo that flipped up over the rear tire when the scooter was in use. Just flip it down and the scooter would rest on the stand.

At our house the bicycle was the preferred vehicle, so the scooter pretty much stayed in the garage after we reached the age of five or six. The "little" kids were the only ones who pulled out the scooter. Even they typically preferred the three wheelers to standin’ on the scooter pumpin’ along with one leg.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

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Weekly Columns

To Your Good Health

By Paul G. Donohue, M.D.

Are Getting Chilled, Catching Cold Linked?

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My friend and I have an ongoing discussion about how we catch colds. I believe the only way is by being exposed to a germ. My friend agrees, but also says you can become chilled, and that results in a cold. Please settle this once and for all. -- L.G.

ANSWER: The only way to catch a cold is to meet up with a cold virus. But let’s kick this around a little while it lies there quivering.

Rhinoviruses are responsible for many colds. This virus is passed from one person to another most often via the hands and fingers. An infected person invariably will have virus on his or her hands and fingers. If that person touches another person’s hands or fingers, the virus is transferred. All the second person has to do is touch his or her nose or eyes and the virus has found a new home. (The drainage channel for tears siphons viruses into the nose.) It’s also possible to spread a cold through sneezing or coughing, but that’s a secondary route.

Many colds are preceded by a body chill. That’s part of the infection symptoms, and that might be what your friend refers to.

Once a virus lands in a person’s nose, the time till the development of cold symptoms is short -- eight to 12 hours. Runny nose, nasal stuffiness, scratchy throat, cough and sneezing are typical symptoms. They peak in 48 hours and are gone in about one week. A person is most contagious during the first three days of symptoms, when nasal discharge is at high volume and when it contains the most viruses.

If by "chilling" your friend means being in a cold blast of air or getting your feet wet in frigid weather and shivering as a result, she has a slight point. That kind of chilling constricts the nose’s blood vessels and decreases mucus production. It might, therefore, permit cold viruses to mount a more effective attack and can contribute to the ease of catching a cold. All the same, without the virus there is no cold.