Budget In a Nutshell.

The City Council Budget/Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to begin the process this evening of pruning down the budget requests presented by departments and outside agencies.

The Committee met Monday and Tuesday evenings and has already invested several hours hearing various presentations. The meeting Monday evening lasted until almost midnight.

City Administrator Tom Short is projecting revenues of approximately $6.8 million for the City next year. The City also has approximately $2.1 million in non-committed reserves, $600,000 set aside for future improvements of Civil War Road and the proposed interchange at Highway 71 and Fairview. The Council also sets 25 percent of expected revenues in an emergency reserve fund each year. This will amount to about $1.7 million. Those approximate figures, $6.8 million, plus $2.1 million, plus $600,000, and the $1.7 reserve brings the total of all funds available to actual amount of $11,003.404. Backing out the emergency reserve and the $600,000 set aside leaves the Council with $8,896,748 to spend.

If you’re wonderin’ where the City came up with the $2.1 million in spendable reserves, look to Myers Park.

A couple a sales of property last year for around six or seven hundred thousand makes up a good chunk a that. If ya add in the almost five hundred thousand that was set aside for the proposed airport, you’re startin’ to get the picture.

Now I’m guessin’ a good portion of that money has been and will be used to put infrastructure into the development. ‘Course the thinkin’ is if ya put in a street or two, ya might sell another lot or two. Sell another lot, put in another street and so forth ‘till it’s done. Takes a while longer, but it doesn’t put the burden of financin’ the project on the taxpayer.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Carthage Printing Services

PRIME TIME WITH KIDS

by Donna Erickson

"THROWAWAY" PUZZLE: If you are looking for a rainy-day project to capture the interest of both your preschool and school-age children, try this puzzle-making project. It’s easy, fun and the best part is that your kids are recycling cereal boxes, old calendars and magazines and turning them into a charming puzzle.

When it’s all made, the youngest in the family will like to handle and guess the figures on the chunky puzzle blocks, while your 8-year-old will no doubt be challenged to put the pieces together. Here’s how to make the puzzle.

Collect nine empty same-size single-portion cereal boxes or gelatin boxes and glue the open ends shut. (For a more challenging puzzle use 12 boxes.) Line up the boxes in even rows to make a square or rectangle. Measure the length and width.

Look through magazines for a favorite picture the same dimensions as your combined boxes. Measure and cut the picture in rectangles the size of each box. When we made our puzzle, we used a colorful picture of a lion from an old calendar. This worked great because the calendar grid on the back side made it easy for my son to do the cutting.

For other ideas, use a painting or drawing your child creates, print his/her name in big letters across a sheet of paper, or photocopy and enlarge your child’s photograph! Glue the cut-out pieces from the picture or drawing on one side of each box. For a double-sided puzzle, turn the boxes over and glue on pieces of another picture. To play with the puzzle, mix up all the boxes and try to put them together to make the completed picture. It’s not as easy as it first appears!