Did Ya Know... There will be a Memorial Day Service at the Park Cemetery, Monday, May 26 at 10 a.m. It is sponsored by the Jasper County Veterans Alliance. James Hartley will be the Master of Ceremony.
Did Ya Know... Economic Security Corporation of Southwest Area announced its air conditioner lending program will begin July 1, 1997. All applicants must meet the required income guidelines of the program. A waiting list will be taken starting Monday, June 2, 1997. The Carthage office is open 8-4 on Tues., and 8 to 12 on Thurs. The telephone number is 358-3521.
Christenings are awful. I can't stand watching them hit a little kid over the head with a bottle!
You're finally over 40 when you tend to learn from experience.
"So how did your game go?" his wife asked. "Well, for what it's worth, I hit the woods great," he said. "That's wonderful sweetheart." "Yeah," he replied sarcastically, "now I just have to learn how to hit out of them!"
INTERESTING MELANGE.
A Chronological Record of Events as they have Transpired in the City and County since our last Issue.
A BICYCLE STOLEN. W. E. Ford is the Loser - Taken from in Front of the Store. Sometime Saturday afternoon or night a bicycle was stolen from W. E. Ford's implement store on North Main street. It is not positively known whether it was stolen form in front of the store during the afternoon or from inside the building at night but it is believed that it must have been taken from the rack in front of the store. The thief was certainly a bold one to take a new wheel in broad daylight, though he was doubtless helped rather than hindered by the crowds on the street. The wheel taken is a Moline Model, a man's wheel, brand new. The tires are vim tires and the wheel can thus be readily traced as vim tires are somewhat rare in this section.
All ten Council members attended the Budget cuttin’ finale on Wednesday, and all were “bein’have.”
Aside from the self proclaimed humor of member Lujene Clark, who wore a bright red dress and brought red pens for attending members, the group worked through the adjustments in a fairly congenial manner. It doesn’t appear that any one suffered from a genuine change of opinion, more likely just an acceptance of the reality of entrenched positions.
Charlie Bastin, whom I mention only because of the contrast from his past interrogations while on the Council, asked pointed questions in a more than civil manner. I don’t imagine that differences still are great among some Council members, but it does appear that they are choosing to take a longer term view in devising corrections for what they feel are erroneous polices.
The budget process may be almost over, but “philosophical differences” remain.
This is some fact, but mostly, Just Jake Talkin’.
by Mari An Willis
Have you ever noticed that one day you can know something and then the next time you may be called upon to use that information it is just not there for instant recall? This used to really bother me until I decided that maybe there was something I needed to hear or learn about the subject if I just listened.
This was the case last week when I was with a group of people who found out that I had a health food store and was a practicing herbalist. Suddenly I am put on the spot to know everything and share that information readily. I love to do things like that when called upon, but sometimes I just want to relax. This was one of those times. So, I turned it around and heard an interesting story.
One elderly gentleman told in great length about a time when he was younger and on a hunting trip with friends. Seems one of the fellows stepped his way into a trap. Cruel enough for any animal to step into, but a human is much more vocal about an accident like that. The trap hit the edge of the boot and tore through it and the flesh on one side of his foot. A nasty jagged gaping wound and a twisted ankle too.
This group of hunters were the exploring type, too, so this happened several miles from camp. Now, what's a fellow to do when you been bit by a trap? You take a deep breath and gather. The nip of whiskey was important to stabilize his attitude, so I was told, and then they proceeded to clean it with the same.
Bill, the doctoring type, knew something about weeds and found some yarrow. He crushed that and made it real juicy and then added a touch of the whiskey and proceed to apply it to that fleshy wound. Stopped the bleeding after a while. They wrapped it best they could and got him back up the cliffs.
Cook had some "darn thing for snake bites and such
The Budget/Ways and Means Committee closed what appears to be its last meeting to “perfect” this year’s budget with only a projected $56,000 dip into the City Reserves.
The Committee agreed on cuts of approximately $414,000 in an attempt to bring in what was referred to as a balanced budget. The meeting was confined to discussion by Council members unless information was requested of spectators and a list of reductions submitted by the Mayor was used to guide the Committee in their discussion. Committee Chair Bill Johnson said Interim City Administrator Max McKnight and City Clerk Barbara Welch assisted the Mayor in developing the recommendations.
Johnson told the group that last year $640,000 was budgeted to be taken from reserves. It was estimated that as much as $500,000 of that will not be spent and it will be placed back in reserves at the end of the fiscal year on July 1.
City Clerk Barbara Welch told the Committee that City reserves could total over $3 million after the end of the year turnback. A City ordinance requires that one third of the annual expenditures be retained in reserve, an amount equal to approximately $1.6 million. Funds over that amount will likely eventually be used for large capital expenditures such as helping pay for the new south side fire sub station and road and street projects. The sub station is not expected to be completed by the end of the 97-98 budgeted fiscal year.
The Committee cut $100,000 for the future rebuilding of Civil War Road and $100,000 for downtown sidewalk improvements after some discussion and moved on to less popular reductions in requests.
Elimination of several capital items from the Fire Department request and the $13,000 requested for an air conditioner for the Double Decker bus brought the Committee closer to its goal.
The Park Board original request of $129,148, which is in addition to their $58,085 in property tax reimbursement from the City, had already suffered a $15,000 cut at an earlier meeting. The Mayor’s recommendation was to further reduce the amount by an additional $37,253. Committee member Mike Harris, Council liaison to the Park Board, moved to make the reduction only an additional $20,000. Council member Nolan Henry spoke in favor of funding the Park system.
“We’re sitting here, on our income side,” said Henry, “sitting on our fannies doing nothing, and gripping because we can’t fund what we should be funding. I just want you to think how economics work. Not just cutting what people need. A lot of things are funded that aren’t really necessary, but a lot of it is necessary. And if you haven’t got the money, it’s time to set down seriously, and think about getting more income.”
Harris said the Parks were also a quality of life issue. “I think the support of the citizens for the parks,” said Harris, “and the services that the parks provide, is strong and consistent.” The $20,000 cut was approved.
The City funding shows line item support for Fair Acres Sports Complex at $36,725; operation of the swimming pool and park maintenance, $30,635; ADA compliance, $3,000; Griggs Park lighting, $2,400; heating and air conditioning for park office, $2,500; and miscellaneous equal to total funding of $94,148. Added to the $58,085 property tax reimbursement, it would bring the grand total to $152,233.
I'm having a hard time trying to decide what to write about this week simply because there are so many things to pick from. There is the way the session ended, pieces of legislation that did or did not pass the last week, and the fact that we are back in Jefferson City for a special session. Since the fact that we are back is what is going on now, that is what I'll write about this week and devote later columns to the previously mentioned items.
The Constitution of Missouri states that no appropriations bills may be taken up after 6:00 p.m. on the Friday preceding the end of session. The budget for the year has to be one week before adjournment. This has been in the Constitution for years so it's not like we didn't know it was there. Most of the appropriation bills were dealt with in a timely and, for the most part, non-controversial manner. However, everyone knew there would be a fight over HB 10. That is the bill that contains money for the Departments of Health and Mental Health. The hang-up was money to be spent for family planning. The controversy was over who should be allowed to contract with the State to provide family planning services.
The main organization in question was Planned Parenthood. As you may or may not know, Planned Parenthood is a major provider of abortions in Missouri, and many people, myself included, don't want their tax dollars going to an abortion provider. It has been my experience in dealing with the public, that even many folks who call themselves pro-choice don't want tax dollars going to abortion providers.
There was language added in the House that specified no money could go to an organization that provided or promoted abortions. This specifically meant Planned Parenthood. The snag was that Gov. Carnahan was, and is, determined to get money to Planned Parenthood. Why? you ask. It seems as though they played a major role in his reelection campaign. In fact, Gov. Carnahan was in St. Louis at a fund-raiser a year ago when we were debating this very issue and the fund-raiser was sponsored by Planned Parenthood!
There are about 110 pro-life votes in the House compared to about 50 pro-choice votes. It was obvious from the start that the restrictive language was going to pass. The way the process works up here is that after both the House and Senate pass a bill, a conference committee, consisting of 5 representatives and 5 senators is appointed to iron out the differences. Despite the overwhelming pro-life majority in both chambers, the leaders of both chambers, like the governor, are pro-choice. As a result, 8 out of the 10 appointed conferees were pro-choice. This resulted in either the restrictions passed by the House being deleted altogether or weakened to the point it had no meaning. This was voted down repeatedly by the whole House.
The frustrating thing was the conferees knew what the House would and would not support and yet insisted on bringing back language they knew would be defeated. The clock dragged on toward 6:00 with no sign of being given language we could approve. Then we heard that some of the pro-life democrats had been threatened and were about to cave in. There was an amendment drafted for another appropriation bill that would have severely weakened the prevailing wage law and if that happened would we help them defeat it? I was faced with a dilemma! I have spent my entire legislative career trying to eliminate or weaken the State's prevailing wage law and now I was going to be faced with voting to keep it!
Fortunately it was never offered, so it didn't come to that but since I consider life a bigger issue than prevailing wage, I have no doubt I would have voted to keep it.
Six o'clock came and went. When we raised a point of order we could no longer consider appropriation bills we were told that meant standard time. The speaker also ruled since we started debating the bill before 6 o'clock we could continue. Two dubious rulings to be sure but both were moot when 7 o'clock came and went and we took up business before going back to HB 10. At this point I got up and pointed out we all signed an oath of office that specifically included the words "to uphold the Constitution of the State of Missouri." I further pointed out a copy was on file for each of us and from here on out we should vote "present" if the leadership insisted on continuing with HB 10. I and several others did vote "present" on the final version. It didn't matter either way as the final version was, like others, overwhelmingly defeated. Thus the need for the special session. It could have easily been avoided but for the willingness of Gov. Carnahan and the leadership to thwart the will of two-thirds of the members of the legislature, but more importantly to thwart the will of a majority of Missourians.
by Carolyn L. Wyatt, GRI
When you make a mortgage loan application you need to have several bits of information with you as well as money. The money is for an appraisal ($250), a credit report ($45), and some lenders will require $20 for a flood certification. Total comes to $315.
You will need the following: Your copy of the real estate contract. Pay stubs representing the last 30 days. That last two years' W-2 forms. Have at least three months of bank statements and/or statements from all income (brokerage, savings, etc.) accounts. Do you receive alimony or child support? Do you pay alimony or child support? This will count either as income or a reduction in your income If you currently are renting, have the name, address and phone number of the landlords for the past two years.
If you pay mortgages to anyone, have the same information available, plus terms of mortgage, balance owed and amount of payments. If you are divorced, have a copy of the divorce decree. Do you own rental property? If you do, have with you your last two years of tax returns and copies of rental contracts. Be prepared with ALL credit card numbers and balances owed and any outstanding bills whether they are with a hospital, doctor, dentist, etc. Any bank loans for that car or boat? Have the information with you.
The list goes on and on especially if you are self employed or on a commission income, if you have declared bankruptcy, or if you have changed jobs several times in the last three years. Be truthful with the lender. If you fail to provide factual information they will probably refuse to lend you the money for that dream home.
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