Roundabout Landscaping.

The Public Works Committee met Tuesday afternoon in Council Chambers. At the meeting the Committee reviewed the bids for the landscaping of the middle island of the Highway 571 and Airport Drive roundabout. The bids were sent out to different landscapers, engineers and architects. The bidders were instructed to layout a design in each of three price ranges. According to City Administrator Tom Short the bids that were received were not what the committee had hoped for. The Committee decided not to go with any of the bids. City Engineer Sam Proffer suggested that he bring in a design that met the qualifications brought forth by the committee. Then after the council approved a design send the design out for a bids. The Committee agreed.

The Public Works Committee received a letter from the Central Texas Conference United Methodist Church. The church is wanting to bring anywhere from 50 -150 people to Carthage to help with repairs, maintenance and construction for Carthage citizens that are in need due to financial, health or age restrictions. According to Short the committee was supportive of the idea. Proffer is going to contact the church and other cities the church has offered services in order to see how the program is usually run. The Committee discussed insurance, the waving of permit fees and contracting issues.

The bridge over the lake dam road in the new Breckenridge addition was discussed at the meeting. The Committee discussed a few concerns and agreed to have Proffer, Sprinkle, Bill Wilison (owner) and the builders engineers meet and discuss the concerns. New information is scheduled to be brought to the next Public Works Meeting in two weeks.

NASCAR to the Max

In one of the more bizarre driver changes in recent memory, Jeff Green and Steve Park essentially traded seats. Park, the former driver the Pennzoil Chevrolet was released from his contract two weeks ago by Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI) after a series of poor qualifying and racing results. Similarly, Green was released by Richard Childress Racing (RCR) after a series of poor results coupled with a series of pit road confrontations with teammate Kevin Harvick’s crew chief and team owner Childress. Green’s run-in with Harvick’s crew chief and his owner resulted after Green was spun out and wrecked by Harvick, a move that Green thought was intentional.

Adding a further twist to the drama, Harvick took over the driving duties for Dale Earnhardt in February of 2001 following Earnhardt’s death. Earnhardt, the namesake of DEI, hired Park to be his driver when DEI was formed though Earnhardt continued to drive for RCR. Many find it hard to believe that Earnhardt would have hired a driver that had verbally confronted his crew chief let alone his team owner, whether or not any on-track action was intentional or not. Neither Park nor Green were given a long term contract, reportedly only until September, leading to speculation that both teams will bring a rookie driver in at that time to finish out the year.

Last Saturday’s "The Winston", run at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC, was a non-points paying, million dollars to the winner shoot out. The race, run in three segments, usually rewards hard charging, no holds barred action with drivers doing whatever is necessary to race to the front. Jeff Gordon attempted the "wreck your way to the front" strategy and was able to hold onto one of the fourteen transfer spots to the third segment. When segment three got under way, Gordon took the lead but was quickly overtaken by Jimmie Johnson who held on for the win over Kurt Busch.

The series resumes its regular points paying schedule this Sunday when the teams will race 600 miles at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Letter to the Editor

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

My husband and I were recently in Carthage doing some last minute preparations for a group of 110 high school youth and adults we will be bringing to Carthage June 8-14 to do mission work. While we were in your city we picked up a copy of your publication and thought you might want to include some information about our arrival.

We will be staying at First United Methodist Church in Carthage and doing home repair and construction work for elderly and underpriviledged people in Carthage. We provide all materials and labor so there is no expense to the resident.

There will be at total of 1700 youth and adults spread across the southern part of Missouri this same week from the Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.

We will be coming to town to simply offer God’s love in a simple way that anyone can understand. If people have hope repair needs they can complete a referral form at the Salvation Army or at First United Methodist Church in Carthage. We will accomodate as many jobs as we have time to complete in our week at Carthage.

While in Carthage we received such a warm welcome and hope that your citizens will welcome these young people as well. Please encourage people to stop by and say "hi" to our teams that will be scattered around town.

I was never enthused about playin’ card games where the joker, or sometimes multiple cards, were wild.

In pitch, the joker is simply an additional card in the deck. It has a set value between the jack and the ten.

‘Course in games where the joker is wild and it ends up in my hand, I take ever’ advantage of the situation. That’s the rule of that particular game and if I’m playin’, I make the best of it.

The main consideration is that all players agree on the rules, no matter how unorthodox they may be, and the rules apply to all participants.

‘Course there are always those who want to modify the rules to fit their particular situation. Rules should be changed at the beginnin’ of the game, not in the middle.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

By Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

I am a Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon, in Africa. Generally, most of the highways in Africa are paved. Except in Gabon. Our national highway is gravel/dirt and is poorly maintained. There are many logging trucks and beer trucks making runs between the capital and the interior, plus Toyota four-wheel-drive minibuses and pickup trucks carrying passengers to different towns. Often when I travel and we pass a large truck going to opposite direction, the driver will put his fist up to the windshield, as if to hold it in place. When I ask about it, they say that this keeps the windshield from shattering if a rock is thrown up by the oncoming vehicle. They say their hand and arm absorb the impact. My question is, have these guys been drinking too much palm wine, or is there real African know-how behind this? — Hannah.

TOM: Well, we think there’s a lot of very good folk wisdom out there. Lots of folk remedies have legitimate bases in science. Unfortunately, this ain’t one of them.

RAY: At least as far as we can tell. There have been international standards for auto glass for at least 30 years. Those standards call for "safety glass" — glass made like a sandwich, with two layers of 1/8 inch-thick glass on either side of a thin layer of vinyl. That vinyl is there to hold even broken glass together and keep it from shattering and flying all over the driver and passengers.

TOM: Now, I suppose it’s possible that if a really large rock were to hit the windshield — something big enough to tear through the middle layer of vinyl — then the driver’s fist could prevent the object from hitting him. But only if his fist is in exactly the right place on the windshield.