Finance Committee Votes For Tighter Control on Outside Agencies.

The Finance Committee voted 3-1 yesterday afternoon to recommend to the full Council measures to more closely monitor spending of City provided funds by contracted outside agencies. Co-Chairs of the four member Committee, Art Dunaway and Lujene Clark disagreed on the importance of the recommendation. Members Trish Burgi-Brewer and Don Stearnes voted with Clark in favor.

One portion of the recommendation would require that any expenditure of City provided funds for over $5,000 by an outside agency be approved directly by a vote of the City Council. These are the same guidelines required for City Departments.

Dunaway characterized the procedure of applying the same requirements on contracted outside agencies as micro-management. Clark disagreed.

"We are not trying to micro-managing," said Clark, "but once the money is committed and spent, it is just prudent on our part to carry forth the same guidelines that we use in (City) departments."

Just Jake Talkin'
Mornin',

Hopefully small disasters come in threes. That’d mean I’m past the "fix-it" mode for a while anyway.

It started last Friday evenin’ with a hiss under the hood of the old jeep. Water hose. The grandkids were visitin’ for the Mother’s Day observance so I take them to the parts store with me on Saturday to get the hose. Simple replacement, good as new. I get in the car later that evening and the battery is dead. I take the jeep and when I return home after dark I see the problem, the rear dome light was turned on by one of the two curious minds. The charger goes on, battery is ok next day. Plug in the coffee pot (a real percolator type), the plug flashes and shuts down that project. I replaced the plug and ever’thing is back to pre-weekend normal. I was lookin’ forward to gettin’ back to work.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Carthage Printing Services

PRIME TIME WITH KIDS

by Donna Erickson

Your kids won’t be bored with this make-and-play board game idea. In fact, creating the game may engage your child as much as the playing! This game comes from Tara Gingerich, a sixth grader from Plymouth, Minn. She and mom, Anna, made the board game together using Tara’s ideas.

Step 1 -Brainstorm an idea with your child. Tara decided to make a board game of her neighborhood. Players would be challenged to avoid road hazards while moving their markers along a winding road from Tara’s house to the community park.

Step 2 -Ask your child to name the game. Tara called her game "Watch Out!" the expression she uses when her parents drive the home-to-park route and encounter their own hazards.

Step 3 -List challenges to include along the game trail you create. Ask your child, "What might happen when you go from point A to point B?" For example, in Watch Out! some hazards with instructions include: "Pot Hole, Jump forward 3," "STrong Winds, Go back 2," "Traffic Jam, Move any car back 4," "Flat Tire, Lose a turn" and at the last space of the game, "Forgot Picnic Lunch, Go home!"

Step 4 -discuss how the game board will look. A large piece of poster board or cardboard cut from a sturdy box is ideal. Draw a winding trail from one corner of the board to the others. Along the trail draw squares or use a round milk-bottle lid to trace circles the players will land on as they play. Write or illustrate the hazards and fill in the instructions players must follow.

Use game markers and a spinner or dice from other board games you have at home. If you wish to make homemade dice, cut a large two-inch square cube from a big sponge. Draw appropriate dots on each side of the cube with permanent markers. For Watch Out!, the players use miniature toy cars for markers.

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