Today's Feature

CW&EP Proposed Rate Increase.

Carthage Water and Electric Plant will ask City Council to approve a rate increase of 15.93% to be implemented April 1, 2006.

At a recent CW&EP board meeting General Manager Bob Williams listed reasons for the increase, including an interruption of the peak load contract which resulted in higher energy prices, complications of railroad service in coal supplies and drought conditions which reduced hydroelectric power availability.

October’s warm weather required more energy at higher prices and the cost of additional purchased power has caused the electric company to exceed budget. Also the Sikeston power plant is expected to be offline for maintenance for twice as long as usual. Projections for next year show no improvement to the market conditions.

If approved the proposed increase would raise the bill of a customer using 1,000 kWh per month by $10.37.

The increase will be used by the electric company to cover short term costs and increase the reserves. A six month rolling average has been suggested of the purpose of lowering the impact on customers.

Letter To The Editor
Opinions expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Mornin' Mail.

A situation occurred recently that involves the city parks and recreation department. Two trees were cut down at Kellogg Lake Outdoor Classroom. Some may ask what the big deal is. The big deal is that they were homes for two different species of animal and were the objects of study and education. One of the trees contained a bee hive of wild bees. The other tree contained the nesting site for woodpeckers.
The city gave the R-9 school district the area designated for an outdoor classroom back in 2002. With the help of a handful of volunteers the park has been cleaned up and improved. Programs such as Kids Fishing Day and utilization by students and teachers for study have been implemented. Future plans call for dredging the lake back to its original depth, replacing and planting of trees and building a Nature Center that will be open for the public. This all costs money and the moneys have been acquired thru various grants and donations of generous groups and individuals that are interested in our students appreciation and education of natural and wildlife resources.
The incident happened last month and caused much anger and dismay.
Certain trees were marked for removal by John Skinner of MDC. The two trees in question were not marked and were exempt from the removal process. The parks and recreation department took it on themselves to remove them citing that the trees were a danger and the poison ivy were a threat to the public. Neither tree were a threat because they were growing over the sloughs. If they were to fall they would have provided habitat for aquatic forms of wildlife. As for the poison ivy argument this was another teaching aid.
According to one of the parks and recreation employees , when he was cutting down the bee tree their was no activity from any bees. He stated that it may have been to cold for the bees to be active.

I went to the lake as soon as I found out about this and took several pictures that showed the destruction and bee activity. It was quite plain to me that there was bee activity and I do have this on disk. Oh by the way, at the time I took these pictures it was a very comfortable day and I had on a short sleeve shirt. We do not know if the queen survived, if she did not then the hive will cease to be.
This is just one of many occurrences of the parks and recreation departments disregard of the needs of the classroom. They repeatedly use the excuse of miscommunications within the department. I pose this; it is a lack of leadership that causes the many problems that have occurred over the years while we have tried to make improvements to the park and classroom. The destruction of these two trees is just another example of the disregard that the parks department has for the education of our youth.
Another example was the matter of the butterfly garden. A group of special education students and their teacher bought a butterfly bush and planted it in the park as part of the butterfly garden. Thanks to the parks employees the plant is gone. We were assured that they would replace this bush but to date they have failed to do so.
The volunteers that have taken of their time and money should be applauded for their efforts and support. I call on the citizens of Carthage to help us keep the park and classroom from being something that the parks and recreation department can ignore and play with at their discretion. The progress in the park is something that the citizens should be proud of and support.

Frank Martinez
Substitute Teacher
R-9 School District

Stench Report:
Monday,
2/20/06

No Stench Detected..

I have to admit I have read through a good portion of those two page, fine print advertisements, just ta see what they’re afraid of. At least the printed ads usually said what the stuff was supposed ta cure. Those tv ads just tell ya ta "ask your doctor about...".

I’ve gotta wonder how they figured out what ailments ta warn against. What ever this stuff cures it just has ta be worse that any of those things listed that keep ya from usin’ it. I suppose these things are on a "need ta know" basis. Myself, I’m just hopin’ I don’t ever get that curious.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin.’

Looks, Feels Like Gout, But It’s Not

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Suddenly, about a month ago, I developed a red, hot, swollen and painful knee. I thought I had arthritis. The pain got so bad I saw my doctor, who had me go to a rheumatologist. The doctor drained the knee. He looked at the fluid with his microscope and told me I had pseudogout. What is it? Is it a form of gout? -- P.W.

ANSWER: "Pseudo" is the Greek word for "false." Pseudogout resembles gout in some respects, but it is neither gout nor a form of gout. It’s its own unique condition.

Gout arises when blood uric acid levels rise, and uric acid diffuses into joints, causing joint pain. In pseudogout, it’s a form of calcium that seeps into joints to cause the swelling, heat, redness and pain. The joint most often involved is the knee, but the shoulder, wrist, ankle, elbow and hand can also be affected.

Looking at joint fluid with a microscope, the doctor can see the distinctive crystals of pseudogout.

Most of the time no cause can be found for pseudogout. It isn’t due to high blood calcium levels except in one instance, when the parathyroid glands are overworking. Those glands regulate blood calcium levels. And sometimes it occurs when blood magnesium levels drop.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs -- NSAIDS -- like Indocin can often relieve the pain and swelling.