No Park Master Plan Yet.

The City Council failed to generate the six votes needed to approve a contract for a park system master plan at their meeting Monday evening in City Hall.

Despite the arrival of up to six inches of snow Monday, nine of the ten members were in attendance for the meeting. The absence of member Jackie Boyer played a key role in the vote which tallied in at five for and four against. The consulting contract with Bucher, Willis, and Ratliff of Kansas City was in the form of an ordinance. An ordinance requires six votes to be passed so the four dissenting votes killed the proposal for at least the time being.

On several occasions in the recent past, failed ordinances have been reconsidered when a full council is in attendance at a later meeting. Several members indicated they felt strongly that the park master plan was necessary at this time. A reconsideration only requires a majority of members that are in attendance.

Members voting for the bill were Newport, Fortune, Whitledge, Putnam and Stearnes. Against were Tobrock, Wells, Ferguson, and Woestman.

NASCAR to the Max

The 2003 Winston Cup Schedule was released recently and once again the drivers are faced with a 36-race schedule. Additionally, there are two non-point paying events.

The Budweiser Shootout takes place at Daytona International Speedway the week prior to the season’s official start and The Winston that is contested the weekend prior to Memorial Day making for 38 racing weekends. The teams will have only three weekends off once the season begins: Easter, Mothers Day and the weekend prior to Independence Day.

That will entail a 20 consecutive week stretch beginning on July 5 that the teams will be on the road and criss-crossing the country.

The season officially gets underway in Daytona Beach, Florida on February 16 with the Daytona 500 and concludes on November 11 for the Ford 400 from Homestead-Miami Speedway again in Florida. No new tracks have been added this year and no tracks are being dropped with the only significant changes to the schedule being a couple of tracks swapping positions in the schedule.

Any time off the drivers want they better take in the next two weeks or so because pre-season testing begins in early January at Daytona. Each team is allowed to test five times at a track that hosts a race with each test being allowed a maximum of two days. Teams can test as often as they want at tracks that do not host a Winston Cup race.

Teams with rookie drivers are allowed nine test sessions at host tracks. One catch to the whole test scenario and a method to ensure attendance is each team is charged with a test whether or not they test at the open test session hosted by NASCAR in Daytona which is a three day test. Teams that finished in the odd positions in the 2002 final points standings will test January 7-9 while teams finishing in the even points positions will test January 14-16. Close to thirty teams could be involved in each session which will help establish the early favorites for the Daytona 500.

The snow removal crews worked on through the City Holiday on Christmas Eve and allowed this traveler to make the short trip to work with little effort. For a community that sees few days of deep snow, it is somewhat amazing how quickly the Street crews get things opened up.

Other City employees were no doubt called upon in their duties to keep the City movin’ through the storm. Police, Fire, Parks, CW&EP and McCune Brooks personnel rose to the occasion all as a function of their jobs.

‘Course most of us just expect such service, after all, that’s what they get paid for. But many communities don’t enjoy the level of service citizens of Carthage have grown accustom to. Good job.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Dear Tom and Ray:

I desperately need your help. My dear husband of 40 years has given me the privilege of choosing a brand-new car. Everything was going so well, until it came to my choice of color. I chose an Accord EX in black with a gray leather interior. My husband flipped and said that the leather is too hot and the color is far too hot for our Southwest climate. Has anyone ever done a study of light vs. dark colors and heat? I agree that the black might be a smidgen hotter, but I think the leather will be just as cool. My husband also thinks I will look like a drug dealer, but with a license plate that reads "MOM 11," I don’t think that will be a problem. The youngest of our 11 children is off to college soon, and I need your approval so I can get my black Accord EX! — Nancy.

TOM: Well, Nancy, first of all, congratulations on getting that 11th brat out of the house. Good work!

RAY: There have been studies on car colors, and here’s what they’ve found. Black cars do get hotter than light-colored cars because the darker colors absorb heat rather than reflect it. So you can expect a black Accord to be a little hotter inside than a white Accord.

TOM: And while we don’t know of any studies on this per se, in our experience leather seats do get a lot hotter than cloth or velour seats when exposed to the sun. In fact, on hot summer days, if you’re wearing shorts, you might hear a brief sizzle when you sit down. That would be the backs of your thighs browning.

RAY: But if that’s what you really want, Nancy, who cares how hot it gets? So you keep a towel in the car and toss it on the seat when it’s really hot out. Or wear long pants.