The Chamber Tourism Proposal.

The Carthage Chamber of Commerce presented to the Lodging Tax Committee its proposal for contracting with the City to provide a Tourism/Special Events Coordinator during a meeting Tuesday morning.

The detailed document, which would leave only $10,000 available to other entities accustomed to receiving revenue from the tax, received a cool reception by some on the Committee.

Main Street Carthage and Victorian Carthage would loose most, if not all, of their funding for staff salaries under the plan.

Under the proposal, the Chamber would furnish personnel and services for $120,000 per year with an initial contract of five years. The budget for the program would total $143,550 with the Chamber making up the difference.

Included in the proposed budget is $36,000 for salaries; $3,000 for travel/training; $1,200 for telephone; $5,000 for postage; $20,000 for brochures; and $70,000 for marketing.

Main Street Carthage Director Carol Green told the Committee she would personally vote against a restaurant tax.

The proposal by the Chamber to contract as the tourism arm of the City isn’t unexpected I’d guess. They have been doin’ that job for some years at some level.

The big difference in this proposal is that it puts all the lodgin’ tax in one bucket.

For the last several years, the City Council has been preachin’ it was gonna stop fundin’ outside organizations with general fund money. The Lodgin’ Tax was used as a way to reduce usin’ general funds to a minimum.

The real question now is not whether the Chamber’s proposal is a good one, but rather will the Council actually stop the traditional fundin’ of outside agencies.

As is typical, this question will become not a financial decision, but a political one.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

by Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Hey guys, I like your column. But I have a question about Tom’s suggestion of using "Reverse" gear in a manual transmission car for parking. I’ve heard that if you park your can and leave it in Reverse, you could run down your car’s battery because you are activating the "backup light switch" even though the car is turned off and the key is out. Is this true? And can this happen? - Eric

RAY: Eric, if I ever decided to open an ice-cube franchise at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, you’d be just the kind of customer I’d be looking for!

TOM: You’re right that when you put the car in Reverse, you do activate the backup light switch. And if you leave the car in Reverse, the switch remains in the "on" position. But once you turn off the ignition switch, the electricity stops flowing.

RAY: Power from the battery flows through the ignition switch to almost all of the car’s accessories. So when the ignition switch is off, the battery cannot be drained by those things.

TOM: There are a few notable exceptions: the parking lights, brake lights, headlights (on many cars) and the interior lights (like the dome light) are not affected by the ignition switch. But the backup lights, like the windshield wipers, air conditioner and engine’s ignition system itself, all cease to get power once the key is in the "off" position.

RAY: So leave your manual-transmission car in Reverse when you park. No harm will be done, and no battery power will be drained. And with very few exceptions, Reverse’s high gear ratio will do the best job of keeping the car from rolling should the hand brake unexpectedly fail.