Today's Feature

More NAO Discussion.

The City Council Public Works Committee will meet this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall. Items on the agenda include the discussion of a proposal to add a Nuisance Abatement Officer (NAO) within the Public Works Department. This item was discussed in a previous Public Works committee meeting and during a Budget committee discussion of goals and priorities for the 2008 budget.

This position would be new to the department with a goal of increasing the enforcement of City codes for weeds, grass height and trash. The committee agreed that if the position was approved, a full time officer would be needed to do the job.

Currently the Carthage Police Department Animal Control officer shares the duties of nuisance abatement enforcement. This job employs one full time officer and one part time officer. If the change is approved, the Police Department would still oversee the animal control duties.

The Public Works committee during its earlier discussion had requested information showing projected budget impacts to the Public Works department as well as the Police Department.

Stench Report:

Monday,
2/19/07

No Stench Detected on Carthage Square.

Ya feel pretty important when ya plunk down the thirty-five cents for a ticket and the whole train is flagged down. Typically the train came through our small town without even slowin’ down. ‘Course I was only goin’ the thirty miles or so to stay with my cousin’ for a few days, but I was feelin’ pretty "grown up" for the duration of that afternoon trip.

Onea the best parts of a train ride is when ya arrive and folks are waitin’ at the station and makin’ a big fuss. After thirty or forty minutes on a passenger train you aren’t exactly exhausted by the experience. By the welcome from my aunt you’d have thought I’d been sittin’ on that train for days. But then, I didn’t let on any different.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Jerking Legs Interrupt Sleep

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Something funny is happening to me, and I’d like to know what it is. When I lie in bed at night, my legs feel like they’re getting electric shocks. I have to get up and walk around to get the shocks to stop. When I finally get to sleep, my husband says my legs jerk during the night. What’s going on? -- L.B.

ANSWER: You’re the victim of two separate but often linked conditions -- restless leg syndrome and periodic limb movements of sleep. More than 12 million Canadians and Americans contend with the same problems.

Restless leg syndrome consists of peculiar sensations in the legs when they are resting, mostly at night in bed. Some describe the sensations as insects crawling under the skin. Others feel them as shocks or burning pain. All must get up and move about to get rid of the sensations. Most people with the syndrome are in good health. However, iron deficiency can be part of the picture. Pregnant women also come down with restless legs. It goes once they deliver.

Periodic limb movements of sleep are jerking movements of the legs that last from minutes to hours. The bed partner is more aware of them than is the person whose legs are jumping about.

One new medicine for the treatment of both is Requip. It restores the normal amount of the brain chemical dopamine. If you smoke, stop. If you drink alcohol, don’t, or at least don’t drink after dinner. Don’t drink caffeinated beverages after 12 p.m.