Today's Feature

Approved Request for Proposals.

The Carthage City Council during Tuesday’s regular session approved a motion to allow a Request for Proposals to be sent out for the City salary and compensation study. Finance/Personnel Committee Chair Diane Sharits reported that the proposals specify that Carthage’s pay scale be compared against 20 to 30 cities of comparable population, services and tax base.

This study was approved during the budget sessions as a way to improve what some Council members feel to be inadequate structure in the pay scale for City employees. Other council members, including Mike Harris and Claude Newport, have spoken against the study. Newport has said previously, and reiterated at Tuesday’s meeting, that he felt the City department heads are in a better position to recommend adjustments than an outside consultant. Harris has said that he felt the $25,000 budgeted for the study could be better used by increasing pay where it is needed instead of conducting a study.

Harris requested during Tuesday’s meeting that regional cities like Joplin be compared in the evaluation, in addition to the 20-30 comparable cities, because Carthage competes with Joplin and other nearby cities for employees.

The Council approved the request for proposals unanimously. Sharits said that the proposals would be sent out within the next few days. There are approximately 10 consultants to which the requests will be sent.

The previous salary study was conducted in 1997. Since that time adjustments to the pay scale have been based on the federal recommended Cost of Living Adjustment.

The Council also heard from Convention and Visitor Bureau Director Kate Massey concerning upcoming events and developments at the CVB. Massey said that this year’s Maple Leaf celebration will feature a live country music concert, which will be held in Municipal Park. More information on this event will be released at a later date. Massey also noted that the Bureau’s new website has received 13,252 user sessions since its launch on June 1.

Council also unanimously approved ordinances allowing two budget adjustments, one for last year’s budget and one for this year’s budget, and an annexation of 3133 South Grand Avenue into the City.

People seem to like a lot of options. They don’t like to see just one kind of soda pop on the shelf for instance. I personally don’t understand why there are two aisles of breakfast cereals in the grocery store. Seems like ten or fifteen should be plenty.

Small businesses have a variety of options that most big companies can’t compete with. They can shift product mix, move quickly into niche markets and give personal service to a loyal customer base.

Havin’ all those options is just our way of makin’ sure we are gettin’ exactly the best deal or the best style that’s available.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Click & Clack Talk Cars
By Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

I was just in a flood, and my Honda Del Sol got flooded up to the hood latch. It was not running then, and I have not tried to turn it on since then. It was in the water for about six hours. Will my engine be ruined? Will my computer be ruined? If the answer to both of those is no, would my car be fine at that point, or do I have to worry that it is going to rust and fall apart slowly? - Diane

RAY: Give it a big, wet kiss, Diane. A goodbye kiss.

TOM: Your engine’s not ruined, and neither is your transmission. But the rest of the car is toast. Or, more accurately, compost.

RAY: The computer is cooked. The interior of the car is going to rot. And even if you did get the thing to run again, the smell would kill you.

TOM: If you have insurance, this is an excellent time to call your agent and ask him or her to send the appraiser by for a little look-see. He or she will confirm that the car is a total loss, and will write you a check for two-thirds of the value of the car. Then you can fight with them to get the rest of your money.

RAY: If you don’t have insurance, you can still get some money by selling the car to a junkyard (oops, I mean auto recycling center). But DO NOT TRY TO START THE CAR. There’s probably water inside the cylinders, and if you try to start it up, you’ll bend all kinds of important internal engine parts and make the engine worthless.

TOM: The safest thing to do is to get the water out of there. To do that, remove all four spark plugs, then crank the engine for a few seconds. Water will shoot out of the spark-plug holes. Then call the junk man, make a deal and move on, Diane.