The Public works Committee held their bimonthly meeting Tuesday evening in Council chambers. The committee discussed the purposed roundabout. Construction of the roundabout is scheduled to begin in late March with a completion date of July 18.

At the meeting Transportation Project Manager Scott Mckee from Missouri Department of Transportation and Contractor Dwight Sprouls from Sprouls construction Inc. of Lamar were there to discuss the color of concrete in the roundabout.

A block of concrete and a catalog with different patterns were brought in for the committee to look at.

"We suggest using a dark red " Said Sprouls.

"Why does it have to be colored," asked Committee member Ron Ferguson.

Sprouls replied, "Federal Highway Administration Round About Guide says there needs to be some type of differentiation between the truck apron and the driving lane."

Sprouls explained that a sealer will need to be applied annually to keep the colors bright. The maintenance will be the city’s responsibility even though the state owns the highway.

"Were expected to have a different color," questioned Committee member Jackie Boyer, "but then it’s up to us to make sure the color stays"

Correction.

The Public Services Committee voted unanimously Monday to present Marble Oaks at Carthage as the new purposed name for the Carthage Municipal Golf Course to Council. Not Marble Creek as reported.

Precious Moments Foundation Miniatures Town Meeting.

The Precious Moments Foundation is convening a Miniatures Town Meeting to be held March 6-8, 2003 at the Precious Moments Inspirational Park in Carthage, Missouri. The focus of the conference is to build a more cohesive miniatures community by developing opportunities for growth, better communication and coordination of resources, public awareness and education.

Miniatures are a rapidly evolving craft hobby and art form. There are nearly a hundred major miniature shows held worldwide each year, the network of miniature collectors, skilled artisans and hobbyists number close to 500,000, and sales of miniatures exceed several billion each year.

Mary Fisher, author, artist and AIDS activist, will be speaking on the topic of "Miniatures & Me: Why Community Matters." In 2002, Fisher donated her personal collection of miniatures to the Precious Moments Foundation. The Mary’s Miniatures gallery is the latest addition to the Precious Moments Inspirational Park.

A. James Heynen, Precious Moments Foundation President, called the Miniatures Town Meeting "an opportunity to demonstrate faith with the foundation’s mission of helping children, communities and charities flourish."

NASCAR to the Max

For the third week in a row, rain forced a change in NASCAR’s plans. The season opening Daytona 500 was rain-shortened, the next week’s Busch series race was postponed until Monday, and last weeks Busch series qualifying was rain out and Winston Cup qualifying postponed until Friday evening under the lights.

Sunday’s NASCAR feature from Las Vegas Motor Speedway went off as scheduled, however. Though Mark Martin had never finished outside the top-ten, including one win, in the Speedway’s previous five races, he was unable to continue the streak when a blown engine relegated him to dead last in the 43 car field. Martin’s teammate, Matt Kenseth, didn’t share in Martin’s misfortune and turned quick work in the pits into huge leads on the track. As the laps wound down, Kenseth extended his lead and ultimately finished over 9 seconds ahead of second place runner Dale Earnhardt, Jr., an on-track distance of over half a mile.

Another of Kenseth and Martin’s teammates, Jeff Burton has two victories at the track giving team owner Jack Roush a virtual stranglehold on the track with his drivers claiming four of the six races contested.

This week the real heroes of the NASCAR circuit are the transport drivers who jockey their team’s cars between their shop and the track. In a period of about 10 days, they will have been from Rockingham, NC to Las Vegas, NV to this week’s race in Atlanta, GA. This period includes at least a one day period that most teams were iced in near Tyler, Texas in route to Las Vegas. This assumes that most teams will use the car in Atlanta that they used in Vegas. If a team wrecked in Vegas or was otherwise dissatisfied with their performance, the driver will head back to their shop in the Charlotte, NC area before heading to Atlanta.

Atlanta Motor Speedway is the fastest track on the circuit with speeds at the end of the straights topping 200 mph. Several drivers should contend including Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, and last year’s winner Tony Stewart.

Things had ta be simpler for Councils a hunderd years a go. If ya wanted a street, ya got what ever gravel was available for the time. There wasn’t a big discussion ‘bout it, either ya got a gravel road or, in some cases, ya might have some brick. Red brick.

I don’t see any problem with lookin’ at options that might make a common interchange look a little more appealin’. Sometimes a little thought and plannin’ go a long way.

A community up in NW Kansas put a star in the middle of their five road intersection. Didn’t make it any easier to get through, but ya have somethin’ to look at while you’re waitin’ for the light to change. How ‘bout havin’ all the first graders in school put their hand print in the wet cement. Folks’d come and see that.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

 

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

By Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Deare Tom & Ray:

President Bush talked about a "hydrogen car" in his State of the Union address. Is this a realistic possibility during the Bush administration? — Jim

RAY: Maybe during the Jenna Bush administration, Jim. The technology itself works, but people "in the know" say it’s going to be at least 20 years before hydrogen-powered cars are viable on a large scale — if then.

TOM: The main problems are: (1) the fuel cell "stacks" are still incredibly expensive to build, (2) the range of the car is insufficient and (3) there’s no national infrastructure (like gas stations) to support hydrogen. So it’s not going to happen anytime soon.

RAY: So, why is the president talking about hydrogen-powered cars? Well, in my humble opinion, he’s creating a distraction.

TOM: I think so, too. You probably know that we now import boatloads of foreign oil every day. And almost everybody agrees that this is not a good thing (except for the countries that sell us the oil). So what do you do about it?

RAY: Well, you can try to find more oil here at home, by drilling in Alaska’s forests, for instance. Or you can force people to use less oil. The president knows that both of these options are pretty unpopular. So he’s doing what any good politician would do: He’s changing the subject.

TOM: Here’s another reason why he might want to distract us from thoughts of fuel economy and foreign oil. With no pressure on American car companies to increase gas mileage, the Japanese have taken a significant lead in the most important new propulsion technology in decades: hybrid engines. Hybrid engines use battery power some of the time and gasoline power at other times, and they never have to be plugged in.