Today's Feature

Public Service Meets.

The Public Services Committee met Monday evening and heard a presentation from the Kellog Lake board concerning the possible planting of 71 new trees. The trees would be purchased for the amount of $15,000. The committee approved a motion to present City Council with a request for funding which would be reimbursed by the Department of Conservation. The item has been passed to the City attorney and will be brought before Council at the meeting on the 23rd.

A grant application was reviewed by the committee for repairs to vandalized property and a piece of faulty playground equipment in the park. The application would be for $2,700 through the Helen S. Boyland Foundation which has provided funding for the parks on several occasions.

City Administrator Tom Short spoke briefly about the progress at the Over-60 Center and a problem with the hot water heater at Memorial Hall.

Parks Director Alan Bull discussed the needed repairs to the fountain in Central Park, and is in the process of getting bids from a company in Denton, TX.

Carthage typically has an above average turnout for elections, but Jasper County as a whole turned out a little less than the national average for Tuesday’s election.

Of approximately 82,000 registered Jasper County voters, accordin’ to County Clerk Ron Mosbaugh, 45,784 voted. That’s near 56%. Estimates for the nation as a whole are closer to 60%. That is the highest turnout since the 1968 Presidential election, but the real benchmark is the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon race. That year close to 66% of the eligible voters turned out.

The number of those 18 to 29 years old that voted did increase from the 2000 election, but the overall increase in voters kept their percentage of voters to the same 17 percent nationwide. But then, who’s countin’?

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack Talk Cars

By Tom and Ray Magliozz

Dear Tom and Ray:

Every year when winter rolls around in the tundra we call northern Illinois, I hear the same old advice from all of the "experts": that we should all keep our gas tanks at least half-full to prevent gas-line freeze. No one has ever been able to tell me how a car with a quarter-tank of gas is more apt to experience gas-line freeze than a car with a half-tank of gas. If keeping half a tank is good, is keeping three quarters of a tank better? - John

RAY: Gas-line freezing was more of a problem in the old days, when pterodactyls chased my brother home from school and gas tanks were vented directly to the atmosphere through a hole in the gas cap.

TOM: So when you had only a small amount of gas in the tank, the rest of the space would be filled up with air. And if it happened to be damp out, there could be lots of moisture in that air. And if the temperature dropped at night, that moisture could condense and you would have water in the gas.

RAY: Then, if that water flowed through the gas lines and the temperature dropped again, the water could freeze and prevent the engine from running.

TOM: So, keeping more gas in the tank was really just an easy way of keeping the air out. Therefore, the answer to your question (at least in the old days), John, was yes. Three quarters of a tank WAS better than half a tank. And a full tank was best of all. In fact, we used to tell our customers that the best way to prevent gas-line freeze up is to fill the tank. And then don’t drive anywhere all winter!