Recycling Cost to be Reduced.

The City Council met in regular session last Tuesday evening and heard the first reading of an ordinance that would reduce the fees paid for disposal of electronic waste. The ordinance would set new fees for disposing of a monitor at $10.00, the new fees for disposing of televisions would be $15.00 and the new fees for disposing of Microwaves would be $10.00. The City recycling center currently charges $30 per tv/monitor and doesn’t take microwaves.

The reduction in charges was prompted by complaints of the fee being too high, and a proposed contract with a new hauler that would reduce the City’s cost for the hauling and recycling of e-waste from the Carthage Recycling Center at a fee of $10.00 for every television, $5.00 for every microwave, and $5.00 for every computer monitor.

The Council is scheduled for a final vote on the proposal at its next regular meeting.

The Council also heard from City Administrator Tom Short that sales tax revenue for December was up, but still 2 1/2 percent less that projected for the year.

NASCAR THIS WEEK

By Monte Dutton

Sponsored by Curry Automotive

Road Warrior Ambrose Has Lofty Goals

Marcos Ambrose’s achievements have been somewhat obscured.

Juan Pablo Montoya is in the midst of quite a breakthrough. Drivers with road-racing backgrounds have seldom fared well driving stock cars on ovals, and Montoya made the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Ambrose is another ex-road racer who has shown considerable progress, but his achievements have been overshadowed by Montoya, the Colombian who competed successfully in Formula One before turning his attention to NASCAR.

Ambrose -- a native of Tasmania, an island off the southern coast of Australia -- drove touring cars in Australia before giving the States a shot. Touring cars are shaped somewhat like American stock cars, but are more technically advanced.

In his first full season of Sprint Cup competition, Ambrose finished in the top five four times and finished 17th in the point standings. He finished second in Watkins Glen, N.Y., and third in both Sonoma, Calif., and Bristol, Tenn.

"It was a wonderful year for me," said Ambrose. "It was a year that was either going to work out how it has, or I was going to pack my bags and come home.

"I needed to have a breakout year. When you get to the Cup level full-time, you really have to make an impression, and I think I did that."

Ambrose said his next goal is "win a race and contend for the Chase."

He hopes his success will draw other Australians to try their hand at NASCAR.

"I think raising awareness of Australia and Australian racing in the U.S. is working really well. People are saying ‘Marcos Ambrose ... where did he come from?’ ... Being an Australian in NASCAR has worked out great."

Ambrose stressed, though, that the transition hasn’t been an easy one.

"I took on a huge challenge, and I didn’t expect it to work out," he said. "As it did, I started to see blue sky in front of me, and I’m just having a good time.

"On the race track, it took a lot of time to actually gain the respect from my peers, and I got picked on for quite a while, but was able to hold my own, and I didn’t step out of line too much whilst I was trying to learn and get to the front. ... It hasn’t been any master plan; it’s just been keeping to the fundamentals."

I’m personally likin’ the new electronic files that are bein’ supplied to the Council and the media. Makes it easy to go back and check your facts before ya write somethin’ silly on the front page.

In this weeks packet there were several articles from various papers about how the sales tax revenue was down across the country. Most were sayin’ between seven and ten percent. Carthage is down about four percent from last year, but staff had reduced the projected income for the year based on expectations. Due to that lowered expectation, we’re only two and a half percent down from projected revenue. Seein’ as sales tax represents close to a fourth of the City revenue, it’s not a drastic drop overall, but always a closely watched indicator.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

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CLICK and CLACK

TALK CARS

Dear Tom and Ray:

I’m living with a bunch of poor, just-out-of-college/sometimes-in-grad-school folks who are planning to share my car. I don’t want to sell it. I’d like to come up with a way to let everyone contribute based on how much they use the car and how they use it. How does highway driving compare with city traffic for wear and tear on the car? It obviously has an effect on gas, but what about the engine and other parts? - Dan

Ray: Well, the first thing you should do, Dan, is go down to where the car is parked, and give it a nice, big kiss goodbye. Because the guys who share the car with you are going to ruin it.

Tom: People never treat a shared car as if it’s their own. Especially just-out-of-college people. So, if you go ahead with this plan, you at least should be prepared for the car to deteriorate rapidly. You’ll find dents that no one can remember denting. You’ll find bent rims, even though no one remembers driving up on a curb. You’ll find a pile of puke in the cup holder, and no one will remember winning a hot-dog-eating contest.

Ray: But if you’re OK with all that, then I suggest you implement a flat-rate plan. Our very own federal government has studied this issue in depth - how to reimburse people for the use of their cars. Their conclusion is that a car costs just over 50 cents a mile to operate.

Tom: Which I would round up to $1.75!

Ray: Put the money in an account to cover maintenance, repairs and a down payment on your eventual new car, which I’m guessing you won’t be sharing, Dan. Good luck.