Director of Engineering Setback.

The Public Works Committee met Tuesday Evening. The newly assigned Committee consists of Committee Chair Bill Fortune, Council members Claude Newport, Don Stearnes and Bill Welch.

At the meeting City Administrator Tom Short told the Committee that the newly hired director of engineering would not be starting as soon as the city had hoped due to the fact that his house and car were completely destroyed Sunday during the storms.

The committee also discussed the time of the regular bimonthly Public Works meeting. The committee decided to change the meeting time to 4:00 p.m. the first and third Tuesdays of every month.

Golf Course Fountain Donation.

The Public Service Committee held their monthly meeting Monday evening at the parks department. Council member Jackie Boyer, and Council member Ron Ferguson are both new to the committee. Committee Chair Jim Woestman and Council member Claude Newport both remain on the committee from last year. Parks Director Alan Bull updated the new committee members.

The Committee reviewed and discussed an agrement with the Jasper County Youth Fair Board (JCYFB). Bull told the committee that the JCYFB has always been easy to work with. After some discussion the Committee approved a motion to recommend the Council approve the agrement.

A donation for a fountain was accepted at Monday’s meeting. The fountain will go into a lake at the golf course. According to Bull the fountain will not only be nice to look at but it will circulate the water. The rotating water will produce a decrease in algae and the amount of chemicals the city has to use in the pond.

The low bid for the fountain of $4998.37 from Turf Professionals is scheduled to be brought to council for approval at the May 13 meeting.

NASCAR to the Max

Saturday’s running of the 400 from Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, VA provided the type of short track action that most of the race teams grew up watching and actually got their start. The action was typical of the ¾-mile slightly banked track and featured an event record 15 caution periods for 88 laps. The first was brought out by Steve Park who cut down a tire that caused him to spin and make contact with the outside wall. The wreck relegated Park to 43rd (last) finishing position. Park, who has run poorly of late and was reported to be on thin ice in last weeks column, was released early in the week and no replacement has yet been named though Jason Keller and Sam Hornish appear to be on the team’s short list.

Joe Nemechek appeared to be well in command of the race when a mid-race caution came out. A light rain was falling and Nemechek thinking the race might be stopped with him being declared the winner (NASCAR considers a race that is past half-way official) elected to stay on the track. Following what turned out to be a brief caution period, Nemechek, in a miscommunication with his crew chief, failed to pit and ultimately dropped 24 positions when the race restarted. Nemechek’s crew worked relentlessly and flawlessly the rest of the evening attempting to regain the lead.

On Nemechek’s last pit stop, with less than 100 laps to go, his team elected to gamble by taking only two new tires while most other teams took four. On lap 330, Nemechek took the lead from Robby Gordon who had battled from three laps down. Nemechek was holding challengers Bobby Labonte and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at bay when the skies opened up again; this time halting the race on lap 393 of the 400 scheduled and Nemechek being declared the winner.

Jerry Nadeau remains in serious but stable condition after a Friday afternoon practice session crash. The series takes this weekend off (their second in four weeks) in observance of Mother’s Day.

Comin’ up in less than a month is the 2nd Annual Carthage Acoustic Festival. As was the case last year, the plans are for the all day event to be held on the Square.

This year’s program includes some of the same acts that performed last year, but several have changed.

To ad more variety to the scheduled show there will be a group that performs tunes from the fifty’s and sixties. Another group will feature more Irish type material. Mixed with the hard core bluegrass and some country, the day should give a good samplin’ of what acoustic music can be.

‘Course the mornin’ will feature the open stage where anyone with the guts can sign up to perform. The festival will run from ten in the mornin’ to ten that night. More details later.

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:

Here’s a burning question that I have wanted to ask: Can a car be used as an emergency source of electricity for a short period? Here’s the deal: You can purchase "converters" that turn 12-volt power into 110-volt AC boxes. If a person were to hook up a heavy-duty one (40-60 amps) directly to a car battery, assuming the gas tank was full, how long would the car run at idle to support a 40-amp load? Would it damage the car to use it like this? Is this a practical source of emergency power? — Dennis

RAY: Well, if you are willing to modify your amperage demands a bit, I think we can work with you.

TOM: Right. You’d have to be willing to give up the vibrating chair massager and the floodlit statue of Michelangelo’s "David," at least until the regular power came back on.

RAY: The devices you speak of are called "inverters." And, like you say, they convert 12-volt DC power into AC and appliances. The heavy-duty ones tend to provide 16, 20 and sometimes 25 AC amps of continuous power. The most we’d recommend for use with a car, even with a heavy duty (100 amps DC) alternator, is about 16 amps.

TOM: That’s enough to run, say, a refrigerator/freezer (5 amps), a 19-inch color TV (1.5 amps), a couple of light bulbs (1 amp) and the microwave (8 amps). Basically, everything modern man needs to survive.

RAY: And you’d have to keep the car running contiuously so the alternator would keep the battery charged. If you didn’t, the car battery’s voltage would drop, and the invertor would automatically shut off. Possibly in the middle of "Baywatch."