Budget Hearings Begin.

The City Council Budget/Ways and Means Committee has scheduled meetings for three days this week to begin the budget process for the fiscal year 2003, which begins July 1, 2002.

The Monday meeting dealt with the various department budgets. Although typically few actual decisions are determined during this phase of the process, department heads do get an opportunity to explain any specific requests they have for the upcoming budget. The process also helps Council members understand the parameters under which departments are organized and operated.

The meeting this evening is scheduled for agencies that contract with the City for services. This year the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau will likely be responsible for administrating lodging tax funding and deal with those agencies requesting lodging tax funds. The Budget Committee is scheduled to hear requests from the Carthage Humane Society, the Chamber, contracting for economic development, the CVB, youth baseball and softball, and Main Street Carthage which requested some operational funding.

 

If all goes as expected, the annual budget process for the City should be streamlined somewhat this year.

In years past, much of the time and discussion was absorbed by requests for funding from outside agencies. The proposed setup with the CVB handling those requests should leave the Council to deal with more routine aspects of the budget. Most of which is consumed by personnel expenses.

I’m guessin’ this year the major decisions, as in the past, will be for capitol expenditures. Which projects will be funded and which will be postponed. This year may see a limited number of large projects. The reduction of revenue from the golf course and Memorial Hall, plus the expense of those renovations will continue to tax the budget.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

McCune- Brooks Hospital

Health Notes

by Judith Sheldon

FOOD MYSTERIES: There is a mystery scientists have been trying to solve for years: how minerals in our diets work in our bodies.

There is a myth that children who eat dirt, and pregnant women who crave clay (a once-common practice mostly in the South) have dietary deficiencies. And, apparently, there is some truth to that. Certain minerals exist in the soil that are later taken up by plant foods. If we don’t get enough of those foods, nature seems to tell us to go directly to the source of those much-needed nutrients.

Most of us know the common minerals we need: copper, iron, zinc, iodine, etc. But we’re still a long way away from learning what these nutrients actually do in the body, and what they don’t do.

We’re also just on the threshold of learning how trace minerals (elements found in very small amounts in body tissues) affect us.

That’s why, while I support the use of supplements (with the advice of doctors, of course), I continually stress the importance of eating a varied diet so that you don’t miss out on any trace elements that haven’t yet shown up under the microscope.