No More Time On Sunday.

The proposed expansion of allowable Sunday hours of sale of intoxicating beverages failed to gain the needed six votes of the City Council Tuesday evening at the regular Council meeting.

The State allows hours of sale beginning at 11 a.m. on Sundays and the City has held the opening time to 1 p.m. since 1994. A request by packaged liquor sale establishments to consider allowing City sales beginning at 11 a.m. was compromised to noon during past discussions of the issue.

Representatives of the Carthage Christian Ministerial Alliance campaigned against the proposal for the last several weeks.

"Let us not take another seemingly small and insignificant step down the road of carelessness," stated from the Alliance. "Instead let us rise even in this decision and remember that peoples lives could be changed forever because a few extra hours of available alcohol impaired someone’s abilities and now a family is left in devastation."

Council members Ross, Fortune, McPheeters, and Stearnes voted for the extended hours. Bastin, Whitledge, Boyer, Dunaway, Clark against. Johnson absent.

"Cost of Gas" Adjustment
To Take Effect.

news release Missouri Gas Energy

Responding to the national problem of unprecedented high natural gas prices, the Missouri Public Service Commission today permitted Missouri Gas Energy’s request to adjust its "cost of gas" rate to become effective on January 24, 2001.

While the decision will adjust the PGA/COG (purchased gas adjustment/cost of gas) rate from $0.68056 per Ccf (100 cubic feet) to $0.98161 per Ccf, it will not increase profits for MGE, a regulated natural gas distribution company.

MGE is one of several natural gas distribution companies in Missouri to ask for an adjustment.

As a distribution company, MGE must buy the gas it delivers to its customers. Those gas costs are passed on, dollar for dollar, to customers in the PGA/COG rate, which also includes storage and transportation costs. The PGA/COG, which is listed separately on bills, typically accounts for about two-thirds to three-fourths of a residential customer’s winter bill.

Prior to the increase, MGE was collecting significantly less money than it was paying for natural gas. If the rate was not increased, MGE would have been undercollected by over $100 million by the end of June.

The company is urging its customers to be energy conscious this winter and take simple steps to conserve energy and weatherize their homes. MGE is also urging its customers to consider enrolling in its ABC-level payment-plan.

If customers encounter difficulties managing their bill, they are encouraged to contact the company immediately to establish an alternative pay arrangement.

To help low-income customers pay their bills, MGE submitted a plan last week with the Public Service Commission to distribute $1.3 million to the Mid America Assistance Coalition. MGE asked for the funding plan to be approved by early February.

Prior to 1998, MGE made changes to the PGA/COG rate about every month, similar to how gas utilities in Kansas adjust prices. In an effort to mitigate the impact fluctuating wholesale natural gas costs have on customers, MGE reached an agreement with the Missouri Public Service Commission in 1997 to limit PGA/COG adjustments to two to three times a year.

MGE typically sets its pass-through "cost of gas" rates in April and November, with a third adjustment allowed in the winter if significant changes in the wholesale cost of gas occur.

This is the first February in four years that MGE has had to increase its "cost of gas" rate. MGE’s next opportunity to adjust its "cost of gas" rate is in April.

The idea bein’ tossed around at the moment is that if the Lodgin’ Tax increase is approved in April is to use a portion of the additional $60,000 to put someone in charge of promotin’ tourism for Carthage.

Currently there are lots a folks helpin’ to promote Carthage. They are makin’ a difference and doin’ the best they can with what they’ve got. What I mean by bein’ in charge is there would be one body responsible for keepin’ ever’thing goin’ in the same direction. Seems no matter how hard these different folks try to work together, some a their efforts overlap or leave gaps that should be filled. The idea of havin’ someone responsible for the overall tourism budget makes some sense. The City has ta now figure the best way to make it happen.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

by Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

We recently contacted the local Aamco transmission shop about servicing our 1992 Chevy Blazer’s automatic transmission, which is working just fine. The vehicle has almost 100,000 miles of mostly highway driving. The Aamco man said that it should have been serviced every 25,000 miles and that it would now have scale deposits in the transmission and that doing the service now would cause problems. He said that it were his car, he would now do nothing to the transmission. We admit we’ve been negligent in letting it go this long, but is this guy right? It doesn’t make sense to us.-David and Patty

TOM: It doesn’t make sense to us, either, guys. First of all, the recommended service interval for this transmission is 100,000 miles. So you’re right on time. You haven’t been negligent at all.

RAY: And I’ve never seen a recommendation from Chevy that calls for transmission service every 25,000 miles under normal conditions. That may be this particular Aamco shop’s recommendation, because they’ll make four times as much money if you do it that often. But I think the guy’s wrong on that account.

TOM: This guy is also perpetuating the myth that "disturbing" an older transmission will somehow cause irreversible problems (this is also known as the "let sleeping transmissions lie" theory). This myth is based on the belief that the transmission has gotten used to its old, dirty fluid. And if you drain out that loving, old, comfortable, familiar fluid and introduce new, clean, uncaring, unfamiliar fluid, the transmission will be upset and won’t remember how to work right. This, of course, is complete horse-droppings. A fluid change is never bad.