Chamber Says Small is Strong.

The Chamber of Commerce has announced that nominations are currently being accepted for the Small Business of the Year Award. Customers, employees and community members are encouraged to nominate businesses for this award.

The Small Business of the Year Award will be presented to a local business that has presented a positive image and has been a vibrant entity within the Carthage business community. Recipient must be a Chamber member in good standing and have fewer than 50 employees.

Past recipients are ineligible for nomination and include: Main Street Mercantile, Oak Street Health & Herbs, ServPro of Carthage/Joplin, Central Pet Care, Cloud’s Meat Processing, Grundy’s Body & Frame Shop, Steward’s Frame Shop, Block-By-Block Quilt Shop, Smith Midwest Realty and Florette By Countryside.

Nomination forms are available by contacting the Chamber office. Nominations must be received by 5:00 p.m. Friday, December 2 to be considered.

Jasper County Jail Count

166 November 23, 2011

Total Including Placed out of County

I grew up knowin’ the value of a good 2 by. There was always a need for a shelf in the garage or some gadget that could be built with the scrap lumber out in grandpa’s pile.

On visits he would pull out a wood shingle and build me a whirly gig or carve a flat, one dimensional "Buntline special" hand gun.

Two by fours were great for makin’ giant rubber band guns that used slices of inner tube for projectiles. A few good 2x12 stacked like stair steps made a great car ramp for changin’ the oil. Longer 2x12’s made great ramps to jump the bikes from.

Lumber meant you could build things, a tree house, fort, a box to keep campin’ gear in. All necessary tools of an energetic youth. ‘Course gettin’ the "board" tempered the enthusiasm some.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Weekly Column

THIS IS A HAMMER

By Samantha Mazzotta

Open Door Policy

Q: I read somewhere that when getting a home ready for sale, a person should balance any doors that won’t stay open. How does one balance the doors? When I contacted a handyman and asked if he would give me a price to balance three doors, he didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. Please help. -- Edna and Jim, via e-mail

A: "Balance" probably means shimming up the doors so that they hang straight on their hinges, allowing them to open and close freely. But that doesn’t guarantee that the door won’t swing shut on its own. Houses sometimes settle onto their foundations at a very slight angle, just enough that doors opposite that angle will slowly swing shut on their own.

A balanced door is a nice touch, but personally, as a home buyer, a door that swings shut by itself is not one of the "big things" I would look for. I would be more interested in how well-cared for the interior and exterior look, and if the house is right for my needs, because I can fix a poorly hung door anytime.

If you must have balanced doors, though, you can adjust their angle by a few degrees using shims. A shim is just a thin piece of wood or cardboard inserted behind one or both hinge plates in the doorframe. The difference in thickness repositions the hinge angle just slightly to either lift or lower one corner of the door.

To match the angle of the door to the angle of the house, use a level (a straight measuring tool with bubble indicators, ideally for both vertical and horizontal measurements). Mark the bubble’s balance point on both the wall next to the doorframe, and on the hinge end of the door itself.

Using a helper, unscrew the hinge plates from the frame and insert a shim (trimmed the same size as the hinge) in either the top or bottom inset, depending on whether the door’s angle needs to go up or down. Screw the plates back on (the screws will go through the shim material) and check the level again.

Balancing a door to match the angle of the house this way will take several attempts, which is why I’m not sure it’s worth the time spent. But if it’s worth it to you, that’s what is important.