"Poor Ordinance"

City Council member Jackie Boyer classified the City’s prohibition of liquor licenses within three hundred feet of a church or regular place of worship a "poor ordinance" during Tuesday evening’s regular Council meeting. The Council voted 5-4 to issue a license to Shellie Ross for a new restaurant at 207 W. Third. Council member Larry Ross abstained from the discussion and vote. A Baptist mission is located around the corner at 213 Lyon. According to Ms. Ross the measurement is approximately 185 feet.

"Whether or not we allow this one variance," Boyer told the Council, "I just think we have a Council bill that is going to be challenged repeatedly. It’s not that I’m adverse to getting additional challenges on an issue, but that’s just my personal opinion, the ordinance is poor."

Member Jim Woestman had a different view point.

"I don’t believe this is a variance," said Woestman, "I don’t think this is a permanent location of a church."

The mission is sponsored by six area Baptist churches including the Victory Baptist Church. Ed Hamilton, pastor of that church, told the Council that all six churches opposed the issuance of the liquor license.

The mission has a six month lease with an option to renew. The same space was occupied for a year and a half by another church that moved after constructing its own building.

Council members J.D. Whitledge, Chuck Tobrock, and Ronnie Wells argued in favor of the church representatives position.

"I do believe it is a place of worship," said Whitledge. "They meet regularly. It’s not a debate about what we intended in the ordinance, we intended it to be 300 feet."

Bill Fortune also voted no to the license.

Members Jackie Boyer, Jim McPheeters, Bill Putnam, Don Stearnes, and Jim Woestman voted for.

Email From NY.

It has officially been two weeks. In some ways it feels like it has been months. Yesterday there was another scare and the NYPD closed all the tunnels and bridges and checked everyones car. Something about hazardous materials.

At work we now have to put our bags through an XRay machine like you see at the airport. But it honestly seems futile since they don't check our person....which means if we really wanted to bring something in the building we could.

It is turning a little cold here but we are supposed to have at least one more nice weekend. Chad starts soccer on Saturday. It has been cancelled the last two weeks because they have been using the Liberty State Park for World Trade Center operations.

They sent out an email yesterday telling us that there will be a lot of noise and dust over the next few days because they are going to start tearing down some of the remaining buildings around world trade.

Some people that were really strong when this whole thing first happened are starting to have a tough time with it now. It is difficult to concentrate on work, to say the least.

I am going to get Chad off to school ...which he LOVES by the way! He was made for kindergarten!

Thanks to everyone for keeping in touch! I hope to hear from you soon!

Note for Note.

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Letters to the Editor
Opinions expressed reflect those of the writer
and not necessarily those of the Mornin' Mail.

Hi! I just wondered if anyone there knows the name of a pumpkin patch that I went to last year with a group of school children. It was someone's farm near Carthage. They gave a hay ride out to the patch and the kids picked a pumpkin. They also sold corn, squash, mums, etc.

I can't remember the name or even exactly where it was. Can you help me?

Thanks for your time.

Dana Knewtson — Joplin

NASCAR to the Max

Kansas Speedway, northwest of Kansas City in Wyandotte County, is the site of this week’s race. This is the inaugural event for NASCAR Winston Cup Cars at this track, although there have been races there this year involving the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks and Indy Racing League. The race has been sold out for over a year making it difficult for anyone other than season ticket holders to acquire a ticket.

Tickets reportedly have been advertised on Internet auction sites for between $400.00 and $500.00. Though the track is new, many teams tested there less than a month ago and its 1 ½ mile D-shaped oval configuration is very similar to the tracks in Fort Worth and Chicago. Bobby Labonte and team mate Tony Stewart typically run well at these style tracks.

Jeff Gordon and Ricky Rudd will also be contenders as Rudd looks to further cut into Gordon’s point lead, which has now dropped to 212 points.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took home the win from last weekend’s race in Dover. The race was hardly uneventful with several drivers going home with bent fenders and feelings.

Most notable was the continuation of the Rusty Wallace/Ricky Rudd feud which dates back to the Bristol race. With Rudd leading the race, Wallace administered what he deemed to be a retaliatory bump when Rudd passed him to put him a lap down. The bump took Rudd out of contention though he did recover to finish third. A post race confrontation of the playground variety resulted in little more than finger pointing, name-calling and wrinkled uniforms. With this being the third confrontation between the two in the last four races, look for NASCAR to begin levying fines or deducting points for any future altercations between the two.

Mike Skinner has left Richard Childress Racing effective immediately to have knee surgery. He was injured at the Chicago race in mid-July. Robbie Gordon will replace Skinner for the rest of the season with Skinner being the leading candidate for Morgan-McClure Racing next season.

If the idea of the Council was to clarify the ordinance concernin’ where you can sell alcohol in Carthage last Tuesday evenin’, there was a distinct failure.

What was decided was what wasn’t to be considered a church or place of worship. I’m guessin’ it’ll take another look if we are to get a decision on what "is, is," as Council member Woestman jokingly put it.

The efforts of the Public Safety Committee to bring some objective measurement to the process is now of little consequence, leavin’ ever’one involved with no guidelines whatsoever.

The "poor" ordinance currently on the books is one of the most restrictive allowed by the State and was passed by the former Council. The current Council now gets a shot at it. (make mine a double.)

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Carthage Printing Services

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

by Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

I have a question about my husband’s 1995 Ford Ranger. The Ranger has a standard transmission and a four-cylinder engine. When we put the Ranger into overdrive, the rpm goes down but the engine loses power. In order to climb a small hill, we must downshift to forth gear. Is this normal? My old five-speed Honda wasn’t like that. Can you explain this to me?- Denise

Ray: It’s absolutely normal, Denise. Especially when you have an engine that is - in purely technical lingo - a real dog.

Tom: My brother doesn’t mean that in a bad way, Denise. He just means that this particular four-cylinder engine is a little on the small side for this particular truck.

Ray: It’s also possible that it’s geared differently from the Honda, and the Ranger’s fifth gear is "taller" meaning it slows the engine more to conserve fuel at the expense of power.

Tom: Whatever the combination of reason, when you get to a hill, you need the added mechanical advantage of a lower gear to get up it.

Ray: Your Honda, on the other hand, may have had a similarly sized engine, but it probably weighed 1,000 pounds less! That gave it a higher horsepower-to-weight ratio (more horsepower for every pound of car the engine was pushing).

Tom: So not to worry, Denise. This is exactly what overdrive is supposed to do. It’s supposed to reduce the engine speed (and save gas) when you’re cruising on the highway and don’t need as much power.

Ray: And also give those six-cylinder Ranger owners a chance to pass you on hills and feel good about the extra money they blew on their bigger engines.