Committees Disagree.

The recommendation by the City Council Public Safety Committee to allow Fire Chief John Cooper two weeks of leave with pay was soundly rejected by the Personnel Committee according to Committee Chair Don Stearnes.

Stearnes reported to the City Council Tuesday evening that the Personnel Committee voted 3-0 to reject the recommendation. The Public Safety Committee had voted 4-0 to allow the leave with pay. The Council agreed to wait until their next regular meeting to vote on the issue. The trip is scheduled for December.

Cooper has been invited to attend a trip to China with about thirty other fire chiefs from across the nation. All expenses would be paid by Cooper, but he has requested that he not be required to use his vacation time.

Public Safety Chair J.D. Whitledge spoke in favor of the request.

"It seems to me," said Whitledge, "that it’s not a lot different than someone attending a seminar. He is actually a representative of the City. There is something to be gained in professional knowledge that he can bring back to us."

Local Family Establishes
Scholarship Fund.

by Robin Putnam, artCentral

We are pleased to be able to share some new information with you this week. It’s about caring, shar-ing and loving memories.

The Anna Iles Art Awards Foundation has been estab-lished in honor of Anna Belle Iles, who at the age of sixteen died in a tragic automobile accident in which her close friend, Kelsey Ritchie, was also killed.

During her lifetime Anna demonstrated an outstanding talent in the field of art. She won her first art award while in the second grade at Jasper Elementary School.

Anna loved drawing flow-ers. She took many years of private art lessons and spent a lot of happy hours with her art teacher, Kim Kissel. Together they would sketch, work on techniques, visit art galleries, copy paintings done by the old masters, mix colors ( sometimes from the berries collected from the backyard ! ) and, in general expand and enjoy their God given talents.

Anna once said, "When I draw it just feels like someone else is moving my hand." In 1997 at the age of twelve she won third place at the Imagine Gallery Art Show, in 1998 her artwork was featured at the Joplin Post Memorial Library and the Grove Oklahoma Brush and Palette art show.

Anna’s family has estab-lished this foundation in loving memory of a talented daughter, granddaughter, and niece. The funds from this will be used primarily to enable art students, who otherwise couldn’t afford it, to attend art camps, work-shops and seminars in the Carthage and Joplin areas.

For more information or to make a donation please contact Linda Kinny, Ad-ministrator, 1813 S. Garrison, Carthage, 64836.

There is a piece of poetry by Rudyard Kipling that Anna’s family includes in the Foundation literature and we would like to share a portion of it with you now.

"When earth’s last picture is painted, and the tubes are twisted and dried, When the oldest colors have faded and the youngest critic has died, We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it - lie down for an aeon or two, Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall set us to work anew !

They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets’ hair; They shall find real saints to draw from - Magdalene, Peter, and Paul; They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all !!"

More.........next week. 358-4404. 1110 E 13th & www. ozarkartistscolony.com

Tues. - Sat 9am - 3pm.

I remember one of the favorite stunts as a kid.

"Ya wanna here a dirty joke?"

"A white horse fell in a mud puddle."

Good clean fun I’d say.

Tomorrow there will be lots a dirty stories out at the Myers Park Development. The second annual Mudstock will take place. Hundreds of kids (and more than a few parents) are expected to wade though the mud provided by the Carthage Police Department with assistance from the Fire Department, Park Department, Street Department, the National Guard and McCune Brooks Hospital. If ya haven’t watched a bunch a folks havin’ a blast gettin’ down and dirty, ya need ta stop by. Bring an old t-shirt just in case, you might not be able to resist the temptation.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Oak Street health & herbs

Natural Nutrition

by Mari An Willis

HAPPY 4th of July. Respect and honor for the country has dwindled in my lifetime....I used to think only older people made that statement, so either I am getting older or the speed in which we are deteriorating as a nation is happening more quickly than one would like to think. We can turn it around if we WAKE UP and pay attention. Who is going to lead us if we allow our young ones to be trained by what they watch and not what we do correctly? What does this have to do with nutrition? It is good for my health to express my opinion!!

You may recall the battle the Natural Foods Industry and supplement suppliers had a few years back making sure that our supplements remained over the counter instead of prescription. As things do repeat themselves, there is a movement to control them again. Not because the herbs themselves are that harmful, but because some like ephedrine and kava have been exploited and promoted in very unsafe ways which may and frequently will cause harm when misused, but under the circumstances Congress may react in a "knee jerk" way. This may result in excessive control of herbs and vitamins. Please, as responsible freedom loving citizens, keep your eye on this issue and let our congressman and representatives know our view before it slips in on the tail of some other unrelated bill and then we have to undo what has been done. Public outery is what stopped this from happening in the past. Make your voice heard....is it the AMERICAN WAY!