Today's Feature

Council Meeting Tonight.

The Council will hear first readings for several ordinances during its meeting this evening at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall.

Among the ordinances is the ordinance authorizing the Mayor to execute an agreement with Planning Works of Kansas City for a comprehensive plan. This item comes with a recommendation from the Planning, Zoning and Historic Preservation Commission. The commission originally expressed concerns because only one bid was submitted to the City for this service. After conducting an interview with a representative from the Planning Works the commission changed its stance and recommended the approval of the bid.

The fee for the comprehensive plan is not to exceed $85,176. Planning Works’ bid for the comprehensive plan includes 6 workshops with the public and with City officials. It is estimated that the project will take one year to complete.

Other items on the agenda include the first reading of the ordinance authorizing an application to the Missouri Department of Economic Development for an enhanced enterprise zone (EEZ) Designation and a resolution entering into a Memorandum of Understanding regarding Joplin’s EEZ.

This item was discussed at length during the April 10, 2007 Council meeting. Joplin’s proposed EEZ extends outside the boundaries of Joplin to other communities, of which Carthage is one. Areas within this zoning will be eligible to receive tax credits or tax abatement as incentives for the creation of new industry and the expansion of existing industry.

For the zoning to be approved, Joplin must submit to the Department of Economic Development resolutions of support for all the communities included in the proposed zoning.

Sometimes I’d hear the older folks gripin’ ‘bout this farmer or another, how they seemed ta be makin’ all the money. The fact was, the better the farmers did, the better off the rest of us in the community were.

Some folks just don’t understand that when business is good in a community, it makes things better for ever’one. Even down to the kid that can’t mow the lawn when it rains. That’s a gallon a gas he doesn’t buy, a blade that doesn’t get sharpened, and a spark plug purchase that gets delayed. A strong business community makes a better community as a whole.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

To Your Good Health
By Paul G. Donohue, M.D.

Some Strokes Are Always Fatal

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: A few months ago, my husband passed away. He had been in reasonably good health, took care of himself, ate sensibly, watched his weight and exercised religiously. He had an irregular heartbeat and was on Coumadin, and he took high blood pressure medicine.

Out of nowhere, one day, he said something was wrong, and he asked me to call 911. I did. At the hospital, they told us he had a massive brain hemorrhage in the worst possible place. They inserted a breathing tube and then disconnected it to see if he could breathe on his own. He could take only two breaths in one minute. We let him go in peace. Should I have insisted they leave the breathing tube in? I know he didn’t want to live in a vegetative state. Could something have been done? The death certificate says the cause of death was a pontine hemorrhage. -- L.V.

ANSWER: There are two major kinds of stroke: ischemic (is-KEY-mick) and hemorrhagic. Ischemic stroke is a blockage of the blood supply to the brain due to a clogged artery. It’s the common kind of stroke. A hemorrhagic stroke is due to a broken brain blood vessel. Your husband’s broken vessel was in the pons, a part of the brain through which nerve cables, essential to life, pass.

Disruption of the pontine nerve cables produces a deep coma and paralysis of both right and left arms and legs. Such strokes result in death or severe impairment. Your husband probably bled more rapidly because he had to take the blood thinner Coumadin.

Sudden deaths are devastating, because they are so unexpected. You made the right decision, one your husband would have wanted. You have my deepest sympathy.