Today's Feature

To Announce New Director Soon.

The Carthage City Council met Tuesday evening in a regular session. Citizen participants in the meeting included Chamber of Commerce board member Pam Barlet, who told the Council that the Chamber had selected its new director. Barlet said that the new director would be announced possibly this week.

Interim Chamber Director Kenny Johnson also spoke to the Council about what the Chamber was looking for in a new director. Johnson stressed the importance of economic development skills as a qualification for a director.

"I think you’re going to like the one that’s coming in," said Johnson of the selection for Chamber Director.

During the City officers reports, commendations were presented to Police officer Roy Eppard. Eppard on October 14 was at a Carthage gas station purchasing fuel when a child inside the store began having seizures and stopped breathing. Eppard responded and began CPR and the child began breathing again. A paramedic arrived shortly thereafter and took mother and child to the hospital. A commendation was presented to Eppard by Police Chief Dennis Veach and Mayor Jim Woestman.

Commendations were also presented to Engineer David Myers and Fireman Josh Roberts.

On December 1 due to the snow storm Myers and Roberts, in the Department’s 4-wheel drive brush fire rig, were the first two emergency responders able to arrive to a medical call for a woman in labor. The firemen intended to take the woman to the hospital but upon arriving found her to be too far into labor. Myers and Roberts helped the woman back inside, delivered the child and waited with the mother and newborn until the paramedic could arrive to cut the cord and take the two to the hospital. Their commendations were presented by Fire Chief John Cooper and Mayor Jim Woestman.

Stench Report:

Wednesday,
12/13/06

No Stench Detected on Carthage Square

We’d line up with a bucket in hand and walk the school yard. It was ‘bout a square block so we had plenty ta do. One kid my age was Frankie. At the end of the day, we lined up for our pay. The janitor wasn’t pleased with Frankie’s work ethic and talked as if he wasn’t gonna pay up. He finally handed the kid a fifty-cent piece. Frankie was obviously pleased. I don’t remember a lot about the janitor, but I do know I never trusted him again. I still feel like he cheated the six-year-old for no good reason.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’

Dear Tom and Ray:

My wife drives a 1998 Subaru Outback Legacy with 110,000 miles on it. She recently had a dealer do a full break job. Last night, when coming home from the circus, she forgot to take the parking brake off and drove home approximately 15 miles with smoke and a burning-brake smell trailing behind. My questions: How much damage did she do, and should I expect to have to pay for another brake job? - Tim

RAY: No, you should only have to pay for another half a brake job, Tim.

TOM: Actually, you might not have to pay for anything. The ‘98 Outback came with two different brake configurations. The high-end Outbacks had disc brakes on all four wheels.

RAY: So in that car, there are separate drum-brake parking brakes on the rear wheels. On that model, even if you wore out your parking brake, your regular brakes would be fine. That’s the best-case scenario.

TOM: However, many Outbacks came with disc brakes on the front wheels and drum brakes on the rear. On those models, the rear drum brakes are also the parking brakes.

RAY: If the parking brake was just on lightly, the drums might be fine. Since you say there was "smoke" involved, you need to investigate further. Typically what happens when the drums overheat is that they warp.

TOM: And if the brakes get really hot, the brake linings, which are glued to the shoes, may actually have come off. So have your mechanic take off the rear wheels and do a visual inspection.

RAY: And don’t be mad at your wife for this, Tim. There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t hear about some clown causing problems on the road.

RACING
By Greg Zyla
Sponsored by Curry Automotive

Year in Review

With the 2006 racing season now in the books, here are some of our major observations about the year.

1. Tony Schumacher’s stunning come-from-behind win of the NHRA Top Fuel title over Doug Kalitta rates No. 1 in this book. Down more than 300 points after 10 of the 23 PowerAde Championship races, Schumacher had to win the final event at Pomona, and in the process set a new national elapsed-time record. Schumacher did what he had to, winning the overall title by just 16 points over Doug Kalitta, thanks to the record-setting 20-point bonus on that final run.

2. Congrats to Jimmy Johnson (Cup), John Force (NHRA Funny Car), Frank Kimmel (ARCA), Kevin Harvick (Busch), Todd Bodine (Craftsman), Sebastien Bourdais (Champ Car), Sam Hornish Jr. (IRL), Fernando Alonso (F1), Donny Schatz (WOO), Jason Line (NHRA Pro Stock), Clay Millican (IHRA Top Fuel) and Dale Creasy (IHRA Funny Car) for big wins in their respective classes of pro racing.

3. The Nextel Cup "Car of Tomorrow" could well be the beginning of NASCAR Cup "spec" racing.

4. Numerous articles centered on Nextel Cup’s lower TV Nielsen ratings and lower attendance at some races. Although this is true, I’ll be the first to say 2007 Daytona 500 ratings will be the best ever.

5. 2006 will go down as a year where just a few major series were dominated by a car/driver. The domination awards go to the still undefeated Audi R10 TDI diesel-powered prototype that won LeMans and the overall American Le Mans Series titles, and Kevin Harvick, who won the Busch Series by nearly 900 points.