Today's Feature

For your consideration and discussion.

Sec. 23-424. Two-hour parking.

(a) No person shall park any vehicle within the following listed boundaries on any public street and leave the same continuously parked for a period greater than two (2) hours: The area bounded on the west by the east curb line of Garrison Avenue and on the north by the south curb line of Central Avenue and on the east by the east curb line of Howard Street and on the south by the north curb line of Sixth Street.

(b) The police committee of the council may designate certain streets within the above bounded areas as areas in which parking is not restricted. Any such areas shall be placed on a list and a copy will be kept by the chief of police and the city clerk. The council may make changes to the list.

(c) Any person guilty of violating the provisions of subsection (a) or (b) shall be subject to a fine of one dollar ($1.00) if such fine is paid within seventy-two (72) hours of the placement of a notice of violation on the vehicle, provided however, that if such person has received more than four (4) such notices of violation within a thirty-day period such person shall be subject to a fine of ten dollars ($10.00) if paid within seventy-two (72) hours of the placement of a notice of violation on the vehicle. If the fines mentioned above are not paid within seventy-two (72) hours and the person is found guilty of violating the provisions of subsection (a) or (b), such person shall be sentenced to a fine in accordance with the general penalty sections of the Carthage Code.

(d) It shall be unlawful for any person to move his motor vehicle from one (1) location on the Carthage Square or within one (1) block of the Carthage Square to another location on the Carthage Square or within one (1) block of the Carthage Square for the purpose of avoiding the two-hour parking limitation as set forth in subsection (a) above. Any person found guilty of violating this subsection shall be subject to fine not less than ten dollars ($10.00) and not more than twenty-five dollars ($25.00).

(e) No person shall be fined for violation of the two-hour parking restriction above if on the day in question he has ridden on the city operated bus tour and as a result thereof has parked for more than two (2) hours at any restricted location. It shall be the duty of such person upon receiving a notice of violation of this section to furnish proof of his riding said bus on the time and date in question.

(Code 1978, § 307.010; Ord. No. 6245, § 1, 6-12-90; Ord. No. 6387, § 1, 1-29-92; Ord. No. 96-68, § I, 9-24-96)

Mornin'

If ya figured you could get by with another week without mowin’, ya better take another look. The season is in full swing. I suppose most have all ready gone through that traditional spring tune up on the mower. Sharpened the blade, put in the new spark plug, put in fresh gas, oiled the movin’ parts that got a little rusty over the winter, you know, all the things that the pamphlet ya got when the mower was new says ya oughta do. I do in fact know a few folks that actually do all those things. The rest just toss off the washtub used for winter protection and fire up. Possibly thinkin’ to at least check the oil ‘bout half way through that first cuttin’. Sharpenin’ the blade doesn’t happen till mid season when the grass just kind of lays down when the mower passes over.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Sponsored by Curry Automotive

CLICK and CLACK

TALK CARS

by Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

My son, 16, bought a ‘77 Pontiac Grand Prix. It’s loud, with a big motor (muscle-car-type motor, original everything). He sawed off the exhaust pipe to make it even louder, even though I told him he could get a ticket for this. He proceeded to tell me that this car "deserved" to be loud. He got pulled over by a police officer, who told him he needed to make his car quieter. He tried to put the clamp back on, but it doesn’t hold. This brings me to my question: He asked me if duct tape will be OK to hold the pipe to the rest of the exhaust system, without starting some type of fire. I’m not a car expert, so we agreed to ask your guys. - Rob

RAY: Duct tape is pretty hearty stuff. But I don’t think it’s any match for pressurized, 800-degree exhaust, Rob.

TOM: Traditionally, we’ve always used frozen concentrated orange juice cans to patch up exhaust pipes. But sadly, they’re now made out of cardboard. So we now recommend empty tomato paste cans.

RAY: Better than that, your kid can go to his local auto-parts store and buy an adapter. Almost all auto-part stores sell metal sleeves that are either slightly larger or slightly smaller in diameter than your exhaust pipe. The sleeve serves as a coupling, where you stick the severed pieces of the exhaust pipe in either end, and then clamp them down to hold them in place.

TOM: It’s a cheap repair, and it won’t last forever. But based on your son’s approach to this car, I don’t think you’re going to need to plan for forever.

RAY: If you want something a little more permanent, take the car to a garage or a muffler shop, and ask them to butt the pipes together and weld them.

NASCAR THIS WEEK

By Monte Dutton

Blast From the Past

HAMPTON, Ga. -- It’s always hard to compare the greats of different generations. Stock car greatness has a lot of levels.

For instance, at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1971 Mercury Cyclone sat in the media center as if it were on a showroom floor. Although David Pearson didn’t drive it until 1972, it’s a car he actually drove. One he drove as well as anyone who ever drove a stock car.

The occasion was the promotional prelude to the 50th Coca-Cola 600, scheduled for Lowe’s Motor Speedway on May 24. Pearson, 74, won the pole for 11 consecutive races, though the track was then known as Charlotte Motor Speedway and the race the World 600. The Mercury sitting a few feet from Pearson wasn’t the one he drove in all those qualifying sessions. Nor was it the one he drove in four victories and 14 poles.

Pearson, who quite possibly was the best stock-car racer who ever lived, looks fit enough to give the cars of today a decent shakedown. He doesn’t have the desire though.

In the blunt, unvarnished simplicity of language that has marked his career, Pearson said simply, "There ain’t nothing about racing now that I like."

Leonard Wood, chief mechanic during the glory days, is from a family that still competes in NASCAR. He wanted nothing to do with Pearson’s rant, though he was sitting right next to him. Pearson, of course, lives comfortably but not ostentatiously in his hometown of Spartanburg, S.C., and no longer relies on imperial NASCAR for his livelihood.

Asked if he’d like to go out and mix it up with the stars of today in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500, Pearson said the only thing he wished was that the money being made now was the same being made back then. Pearson, who won 105 Cup races in 574 tries, won $2,836,220 in his entire career. That’s more than Matt Kenseth has won this year, but just barely.

Pearson isn’t an angry or bitter man. He’s almost dispassionate when discussing the racing of today. It’s not like he’s wearing a sandwich board and picketing the racetrack. He’s just listening to questions and answering them. He doesn’t have much need to think one way and talk another.

Referring to the ultra-technical lingo of today’s drivers, Pearson said, "About half the time, I don’t think they know what they’re talking about. Whoever heard of putting a quarter pound of air in a tire and being able to tell the difference? All they’ve got to do is move up the race track or come down three or four feet, and it’d be the same thing."

Pearson doesn’t like the routine nature of how fields are set, with 35 locked in before the first car takes the track, and the very idea that a driver gets a free pass on the lead lap after dawdling his way off of it is anathema to this product of the Whitney mill village. He’s from a different age and doesn’t much care for the one now.

But this age would be a lot more fun if Pearson was in it.