Today's Feature

Proposed Recycling Center Fees.

The City Council Public Works Committee met Tuesday afternoon in a regular session and discussed rates at the Carthage Recycling Center. Public Works Department Director Chad Wampler told the committee that the cost to the City for removal of roll-off dumpsters from the center has increased. Wampler cited a recent bill to the City which shows an increase in the service charge for removal of the roll-off dumpster, as well as a 100% increase in the fuel surcharge. Wampler said that the increases are causing the Public Health fund to be over-budget on the roll-off line item.

Two years ago the Public Works Committee increased rates to minimize City loss at the landfill due to increases in the cost of roll-off removal. Wampler said that those changes helped for a while, but that the costs have increased again.

The committee agreed that changes should be made, and primarily focused on the rates applied for General Trash and Demolition/Construction. The following increases were recommended in the General Trash section: Barrel; increase from $5 to $20, Pickup; increase from $25 to $75. Changes to the Demolition/Construction section were recommended as follows: Pickup; increase from $60 to $100, 4’ x 8’ Trailer; increase from $80 to $130, 1 Ton or larger; increase from $300 to $500. The committee approved a motion to recommend a Council bill allowing these rate changes.

Street Commissioner Tom Shelley also noted that he had received a letter from Blevins Asphalt saying that the cost of asphalt per ton is increasing to $49.00. Shelley said that in the last four months the cost has risen from $38.50 per ton to $49.

Due to these increases the committee also discussed possible changes to the fee for utility cut repairs. The rate of increase was discussed briefly, but no figures were finalized. The committee voted to allow Shelley and City Administrator Tom Short to submit a recommendation for the new rates, which will be presented to City Council for consideration.

Mornin',

Seems like the older I get , the less I know. At least I think I know less.

I’d give anything to be half as smart as I thought I was when I was twenty. What I’m afraid of is that I’m only ‘bout half as smart as I think I am now.

Prob’ly the worst thing about gettin’ some a that mature experience under your belt is ya start realizing just how much ya really don’t know about a lotta things.

So ta my way a thinkin’, the more ya know the dumber ya feel.

‘Course you can always go outa your way ta find one a those smart twenty-something’s that know it all. Usually after a while ya start ta feel a little better just knowin’ that in another ten or fifteen years, they won’t be as smart as you think they are now.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

CLICK AND CLACK

TALK CARS

by Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

While on my evening walk, I went past a small SUV with the engine running. On the return leg walk, the engine was still running. At the completion of my walk, I went back to check the vehicle. It was still running, so I went up to the house and asked the owner if she knew her engine was running. She was charging her cell phone! Question: How long can a modern passenger car be left idling? How much does it cost in gas? Can a cell phone be charged by using just the battery? And safer? What is the wear and tear on the engine?--Mike.

Tom: We can do the math. An average car burns about 0.15 gallons of gas an hour while idling. That’s 45 cents’ worth of gas at $3 a gallon. Plus, in an hour you create three pounds of carbon dioxide and who knows how much nitrous oxide emissions? But we don’t need to do all of the math to conclude that this is a wasteful way to charge a cell phone.

Ray: It’s like air-conditioning your house down to 30 degrees to keep the ice-cream cold, instead of just putting it back in the freezer.

Tom: I assume the cell-phone owner had lost her home plug in charger, and was using the car adapter because that was the only way she could charge her phone.

Ray: What she didn’t know was that she didn’t have to run the engine. If she had plugged the adapter into the power point or cigarette lighter and then turned the key to the appropriate position (on some cars, the power point will work without the key in at all, and on other cars the key needs to be in one of the "on" positions), she could have charged her cell phone using only the car’s battery, with no harm to the battery. The battery would have completely recharged itself the next time she used the car.