Council Turns Down Tougher

Landlord Requirements.

The ordinance that would have required landlords to hire licensed electricians to for electrical repairs to rental property was soundly defeated during last Tuesday's regular Council meeting. The measure failed to gather a single supporter on the Council, rejected by a vote of 0-10. Council Member Bill Fortune, Chair of the Public Works committee, had voted in committee to recommend the ordinance to the Council. Fortune told the Council Tuesday that although he understood the reasoning behind the proposal, he was not convinced that this particular ordinance would achieve its objective.

The regulations would have made it easier for the City to assure permits were issued for electrical repairs according to the Engineering Department. The City already has regulations that require rental property owners to use licensed plumbers for repairs.

Current regulations require that anyone making electrical repairs contact CW&EP and have the work inspected. According to some on the Council, even this has been difficult to enforce.

Several rental property owners expressed their concerns about the ordinance to the Council over the last couple of weeks.

In other business, a 5-5 vote by the Council forced Mayor Johnson to decide whether or not to allow a change order to the mall sidewalk repair contract. Johnson broke the tie with his vote to allow the $1,700 additional expense to repair an access doorway into the space under the elevated sidewalk.

The five Council members who voted against the change order questioned why the repairs were not included in the original engineering study that set bid specifications. Assistant to the City Engineer Joe Butler told the Council that it was merely an oversight. The only entrance to the opening comes through a privately owned building, but the only function of the opening is a convenience to the City. When it was found that the entry way was in need of repair, according to Butler, the City could not expect the property owner to pay for something that only benefited the City.

The Council also rejected the budget proposed by CW&EP because of a recommendation by the Board of Public Works to reduce by $50,000 the amount of transfer from the utility to the City General Fund. The Board says the transfer is now more than typical franchise fees.

letter from ma

I tease my friend from Maine that she pronounces her "r's" as if they are spelled "ah."

She points out that I put "r's" where they don't belong, saying "warsh" instead of "wash."

I guess all regions of the country have their individual ways of expressing themselves.

My mother, who came from Northeastern Missouri, had some sayings I understood the meaning of, but literally, didn't make sense.

She'd say, "It's cold as blazes outside." I knew she meant it was really cold and didn't question her about the "blazes."

She might tell me to do something "directly" (She pronounced it "dreckly"). I knew I could do it "pretty soon," but didn't have to do it immediately.

She told me to stay out of the "brilin' hot sun." Years later I realized she meant the "broiling" hot sun.

A relative from Michigan can be speaking about something she did yesterday. She'll say, "I brought my mother some soup to the nursing home."

Now, to me, she "took" her mother the soup. If she "brought" it, she'd have it with her now.

A man from Kansas told this story about a time he was a bus driver in Texas.

A woman approached him in the bus station and asked, "Will y'all carry me to Dallas?"

"Lady," he answered, "if you wanna go to Dallas, you get on that bus. I ain't gonna "carry you nowhere."

Powers Museum Honors KOM League

Release by Powers Museum

In honor of the KOM League Reunion, the Powers Museum will be featuring a display of photographs, in its lobby, of former Carthage baseball players from June 14th to September 7th. Players from the KOM Carthage Cardinals, as well as members of the 1941 Carthage Browns and the 1938 Carthage Pirates, will be included.

The photographs were donated to the museum in the fall of 1992 by Mercantile Bank when they were found in the building of the former Jasper County Savings and Loan Building.

KOM league reunion organizer John Hall of Columbia, Missouri, has identified the photographs for the museum and provided additional information on members of the Carthage Cardinals team.

The Powers Museum is located at 1617 W. Oak Street in Carthage. The facility is directly north of Municipal Park where these teams played in the newly-built Works Progress Administration stadium that still is used today. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 to 5:00 and Sunday 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Admission is by donation.

artCentral Upcoming Events

release by artCentral

We are anxiously awaiting the garden tour coming up June 20th. "Art in the Garden," the 1998 garden tour sponsored by Ozark Nursery and the Art Forum, is off and running. Tickets are now available at artCentral, Imagine Gallery and the Lily Pad.

Proceeds from this garden and art tour will benefit several great places. Each person who purchases a ticket gets to choose where that $5 will be donated. artCentral's art library is just one of the fine organizations on the list. The public libraries in Webb City and Joplin and landscaping at the Phelps House are the other choices.

We hope to see tons of people participating and we are excited to be on this tour. We have given up trying to grow any Autumn Joy sedums. The escaping cows really enjoy chewing it up and spitting it out. The Liriope gets eaten down to the nubs. Way to go Blossom. Bossy. Whatever her name is.

During this garden tour artCentral will be featuring the artwork of about 30 of its members. Members from Tulsa to St. Louis to Kansas City and back. And Indiana, too.

There will be a colored pencil workshop in August taught by our very own Helen Kunze. Helen is an illustrator whose work is well known for its style and medium. She worked at Hallmark for four years and has been free-lancing for about seven years.

The Wednesday evening Life Drawing is really hopping. More new people are coming out to join in the fun. Afternoon sessions are free and evening sessions are $5 per person to pay the model.. Both are open to the public.

Our Membership show opening reception is Friday, June 12. We hope to see some new faces as well as our regulars. The appetizers served will be recipes from our fund-raiser cookbook, "Palettes and Palates."

The event is open to the public, so come out and see some great art, taste some great food and meet some great people.

Just Jake Talkin'
Mornin',

One a the participants in the citizen’s portion of the Council meetin’ Tuesday suggested that the City look closely at the Sunday afternoon soccer games bein’ held at the Myers Park practice soccer fields.

The lady was concerned about the traffic and in particular the apparent consumption of alcohol during the sportin’ activities. She referred to the City’s enforcin’ the public drinkin’ laws.

The City does in fact have several laws on the books concernin’ drinkin’ in "public." That has ta do with public streets, sidewalks and the such. There is also specific exceptions to the rules when it comes to public parks. As far as I can tell parks are legal consumin’ locations. If that’s fact, the only question now is whether the Myers soccer facility is a park or not. It looks like a park, is used as a park, it’s called a park.

This us some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

 

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

CLICK and CLACK
TALK CARS

by Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

We have a 1985 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with 64,000 miles on it. With all of the ventilation controls off, the heat will suddenly come on. With the air conditioner on, it suddenly changes to heat when I step on the gas hard, and then returns to AC when I release the gas pedal. With the controls set for outside fresh air, it will change to heat on its own. Do you know why it's doing this? - Euclid

RAY: Did you buy it used, Euclid? Maybe this car was originally from Anchorage, and it's having withdrawal symptoms.

TOM: It's a vacuum problem. All the ventilation controls and the heater control valve on this car are operated by vacuum. And the default position (i.e. when there's no vacuum or very low vacuum) is "heat."

RAY: So when there's not enough vacuum, the blend doors and the heater control valve will begin to open and allow heat in.

TOM: When you turn on the AC or the fresh-air vent, or turn the whole ventilation system off, engine vacuum is supposed to keep the valves and doors closed. But for some reason, the vacuum you're getting is insufficient.

RAY: You may have a broken hose somewhere, or the control unit on the dash board may be faulty and may be creating a vacuum leak.

TOM: And the reason it gets worse when you step down hard on the gas is because that's when the engine naturally produces the least vacuum. So if you suddenly need to climb a hill or pass somebody, you step on the gas, the engine vacuum decreases, the doors open, an voila! You get heat.

RAY: Have your mechanic look for a vacuum leak, Euclid. Finding it and fixing it should take the heat off the situation.

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