Police Department Holds The Line.

The budget for the Carthage Police Department proposed by Chief Dennis Veach for fiscal year 2001/2001 shows less than a one percent increase over last year.

The document was put together before the Finance Committee recommended the City paying approximately $90,000 in increased health care costs for City employees, so total costs will push the budget up.

The budget did include a 3.8% increase in salaries that was anticipated due to the City’s past practice of giving a cost of living raise to employees. According to City Administrator Tom Short, that percentage will likely be adjusted because of reductions made to the national average.

In a separate document submitted to the Public Safety Committee, Veach outlines his recommendations for increasing the staff levels of the Police Department. Veach notes that in 1981 there were 20 commissioned police officers. There are now 25. He says that calls for service have nearly doubled since 1998 and 911 calls to the department have nearly tripled. The need for two officers, a detective, a school resource officer and a secretary are anticipated by Veach.

Commentary

Martin "Bubs" Hohulin
State Representative, District 126

I guess the days of Bob Griffin are never going to leave these hallowed halls. Typically, Thursday is when we head for home, so the legislation we usually take up on Thursdays is what we have discussed earlier in the week and are voting on it for the final time. This is done to try to avoid long debate and allow the members to get left for home at a reasonable time.

That all went out the window last week when Don Koller, a democrat from Shannon County brought up Governor Holden’s transportation package for debate.

This was going to be one of the most comprehensive reform packages in years and we all assumed it would receive at least a day or two of debate. The other thing is that our rules stipulate that any new legislation must be available to us at least 24 hours in advance. The first thing he did was to move for suspending that rule so that we could take up the legislation right away.

This did a couple things that were bad. First, we didn’t have a chance to preview the legislation.

Second, we were precluded from offering some of the changes we had wanted to offer. That was the biggest irony of all. They were asking us to suspend a rule so that they could take up a very complicated bill without giving us the required minimum time to look at. At the same time they were opposing a rule suspension that would have allowed us to at least make some proposed changes to the legislation. So much for having all ideas considered.

Apparently the democrat leadership of the House of Representatives doesn’t think anyone but them are smart enough to have any worthwhile ideas. Either that, or they were afraid that the changes we wanted to make would be adopted and then they would be in trouble with the Governor.

Either way, they muscled through the rule change that they wanted, turned down our rule change and got right into it.

After no time at all, they voted to cut off debate and force a vote on what will be the most important transportation bill for years to come. What a shameful way to run the people’s business. Oh well, I guess when one party is in power for over 4 decades, they figure they can ignore the will of the people.

As usual, I can be reached at House Post Office, State Capitol, Jefferson City, MO 64759, or 1-800-878-7126, or mhohulin@services.state.mo.us for your questions, comments, or advice.

Those on the Council Budget Committee will pay their dues beginnin’ next week. Meetings are scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to begin the process of puttin’ a budget together for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The first meetin’ will be to hear all City department proposed budgets. On Tuesday the Committee will hear request from outside agencies that are requesting contracts with the City. Wednesday’s meeting will start the process of lookin’ at what money is projected and where it’s gonna be allocated.

There will no doubt be several of this kind of meetin’ ‘fore the thing is settled.

All meetin’s are open to the public and it’s a great way to learn how the City operates and see the interaction of Council members.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

McCune- Brooks Hospital

Health Notes

Health & Nutrition by Judith Sheldon

HEALTH LINES: It’s been 30 years since a vaccine was developed against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles).

In recent years, there has been some public resistance voiced against vaccinating children for these diseases as well as polio and whooping cough. The detractors point to tragic instances that affected some youngsters. As a result, they’re trying to change the laws so that mandatory vaccination will no longer be required.

These people have a right to be concerned when a child is injured or even dies because of any type of medical treatment. But vaccinations have saved untold millions of children around the world from crippling, blindness, or other complications - some of them fatal - from these diseases.

Some medical authorities see these protests as part of a move to return to a less medically intense period when nature took its course, and you took a chance with nature. The sad fact is that before the Salk vaccine was made available, polio killed thousands of people - mostly children - every year, and crippled many times that number. German measles was especially dangerous for expectant mothers because of the high incidence of birth defects that followed infection.