Another Landmark For Sale.

The Drake Building located at 403 Howard has been boarded up since last Thursday and the residents were moved to other locations. The building is currently for sale and is listed with Steve Sutton Realty in Kansas City, Missouri.

"The property was appraised at $1.5 million and the asking price is $970,000," said Steve Sutton in an interview with the Morning Mail.

Sutton stated that it has 26,000 square feet and has 54 resident rooms, 2 multipurpose rooms, laundry facility, large kitchen and dinning area.

The property is owned by Harry Baum of Kansas City.

"It was a combination of things, and we decided not to keep it running anymore," said Angela Moore, daughter of the owner.

Moore also mentioned that they had leased it to another company and they couldn’t keep it running either. The number of clients were down and it wasn’t profitable. That along with the need for a new boiler unit contributed to the decision to sell the property.

Executive Director of Economic Security Corporation of Southwest Area John Joined told the Morning Mail he did a walk through of the building earlier this week. Joines said that the building needed alot of repairs but is not as bad as one might think.

Joines remarked that it would be a good place to make into residential rental property since it already has individual hotel rooms.

According to Carthage historian Sue Vandergriff construction of the Drake Motel started in 1920 and was open for a public tour February 20, 1922. There were other hotels in Carthage at the time but this one would be the premier hotel in town.

In 1975 the hotel became a resident care facility for developmentally disabled people and has continued in that capacity since then.

NASCAR to the Max

Sunday’s running of the Pop Secret 400 at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, NC, marked the final time the NASCAR series will visit the track for a fall race. The track also hosts a race in February which NASCAR considers a spring race. Rockingham’s fall date is being transferred to Darlington, SC which lost its traditional Labor Day date to California.

Sunday’s race, though slowed by ten cautions for 65 laps, was a largely uneventful affair. The race only featured five different leaders who swapped the lead 14 times. NASCAR requires all teams to run the same motor for the entire weekend including qualifying, practice and the race. The penalty for changing motors is to start from the rear of the field. Bill Elliott, who changed motors, ultimately found that the penalty was worth the risk by working his way toward the front from the early going and even leading the most laps including the one that matters most; the final one. The win marked the 44th career victory for the 48 year-old Elliott and came at the site of his first start back in 1976.

Retirement rumors have been circulating around Elliott all season with several scenarios being discussed including running a full season, running a partial season or complete retirement. The one person with the answer, Elliott himself, has been tight lipped about his plans.

Overshadowing the race itself, was the fact that Matt Kenseth wrapped up the season points championship. Kenseth came into the race needing only a 30th place finish in the final two races or a seventh place or better finish at Rockingham to seal the championship. Kenseth claimed the championship by coming home in fourth place in Sunday’s race.

Positions two through six in the season point’s standing are still tightly grouped with only 167 points separating the five positions.

The final race of the season takes place this weekend at Homestead-Miami (FL) Speedway. The track has gone through numerous reconfigurations in recent years with the banking being changed this year. Kurt Busch won last year’s race.

I love the idea of the Boots Motel bein’ in Carthage. The problem is the idea doesn’t do much to maintain the structure and keep the neon lights on. That takes money.

The property has been up for sale for over a year and no historic group has come up with a plan or the funds to purchase and operate the structure even as a tourist attraction.

I don’t blame those who are tryin’ to pursuade the City to step in and kill the sale of the landmark, I just don’t think there is any basis for the City gettin’ involved.

The City already operates a Civil War Museum and just sunk way over a half million into the Memorial Hall.

It’s now to the question of may or mays not, no walls or wall green, time will tell.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

By Tom and Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

My son was driving his 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse on the highway when the engine failed catastrophically. The oil filter blew off, and oil spewed all over the highway. He had it towed to the nearest dealer, who insists it should not be covered under warranty because my son "ran it out of oil." My son has serviced the car at two dealerships. The last oil change was at 31,000 miles, and it now has 37,900. He filed a complaint with Mitsubishi’s headquarters, but they are sticking by the dealer. How can they claim it ran out of oil, when oil was all over the highway and under the car? Do we have any recourse? He still owes megabucks on this now engineless car. — Charlotte

TOM: Well, the circumstantial evidence seems to be in your favor, Charlotte. But I assume the dealer is claiming that the oil filter slowly came loose, dripped a little bit of oil each day, and your son was negligent for not checking the oil level and noticing that it was low. Then, finally, when the filter fell off entirely on the highway, the small amount of remaining oil spilled out. That’s the dealer’s story.

RAY: And you and your son obviously believe that the oil filter was not loose, and that it simply blew off catastrophically, causing the engine to seize.

TOM: There’s only one good way to find out. You have to examine the oil filter. If the oil filter looks normal, as if it did just "fall off," then you’ll be hard pressed to collect from Mitsubishi. Even if you go back to the dealership that did the last oil change, I’m sure it’d be reluctant to accept the blame for a loose filter that was installed 7,000 miles ago. They’ll argue — and reasonably so — that if they had left it loose, it probably would have fallen off 6,500 miles ago.