Golf Course Financing Approved.

The City Council voted 8-2 last Tuesday evening to authorize financing of $1.9 million for the Municipal Golf Course improvements. Members Chuck Tobrock and Ronnie Wells voted against.

The Steadley Trust has committed to $1.8 million toward the project to be paid at $200,000 a year for nine years. The lease/purchase type of arrangement will allow the project to be completed and then payed out over the next sixteen years.

Golf course revenues are projected to cover the additional cost of financing. City Administrator Tom Short has projected that the City will be able to pay off the financing at in about twelve years if revenues meet anticipated levels after the improvements.

The Council also gave final approval to contract with Main Street Carthage to promote the community for the next several months. The $10,000 funding came from Lodging Tax Funds that were not committed to a particular entity this year.

Also finalized was the agreement to purchase property owned by Larry Allen located at 116-118 W. Third for $10,066.

NASCAR to the Max

A significant rule change has occurred during this off-season. It is being called the "One Engine Rule." The teams will be required to use the same engine for a race that they used during qualifying. In years past, the teams have been able to change the engine in their car between qualifying on Friday and the race on Sunday. Many people felt that this favored the more heavily financed teams.

Though most teams had separate motors for qualifying and racing, many felt that the teams with the deeper pockets were able to do more research and testing with the qualifying motors. Many of the larger teams had a full time crew dedicated to designing and building qualifying motors.

Most teams attacked qualifying with little regard for the longevity or life span of the qualifying motor. As long as it lasted the necessary one or two laps of qualifying it had fulfilled it’s usefulness.

There will be a few exceptions to the rule, which take into account the possibility of damage to the engine during the practice sessions between qualifying and the race. In that instance, a team making an engine change would be required to start from the rear of the field of 43.

Because of the unique qualifying method used in the season opening Daytona 500, the rule will not be enforced there.

Last years Daytona 500 winner, Michael Waltrip, was the fastest driver in the second week of testing at Daytona. Waltrip’s speed of 183.255 trailed week one testing speeds and only placed him sixth fastest over the two week test period.

Several NASCAR drivers would have interesting "What I Did During the Off-Season" reports. Mike Skinner and Ricky Rudd each had surgery to repair past and nagging injuries, Skinner on his knee, Rudd on his back.

Tony Stewart went snow skiing then jetted to a warmer climate to scuba dive before heading to the Chili Bowl Nationals, an indoor dirt track race for sprint cars held in Tulsa, OK. After a heated battle, Stewart took the win by less than a car length.

The Public Safety Committee is considerin’ keepin’ any vehicles from roamin’ Walnut Bottoms. If you’re not familiar with the bottoms, it’s that little piece a land just across Spring River with Kendrick Town just to the north.

There is just one road in and some type a road block has been suggested. The property is typically used as a party place or a convenient spot to dump various articles in disrepair. Although blockin’ the road to vehicles wouldn’t keep folks who use the spot for fishin’, it is thought to be a deterrent parties if participants couldn’t have their vehicles close at hand.

I’m thinkin’ the greatest benefit would be to stop the dumpin’ of couches and refrigerators on the site. Doubt if anyone would go to the trouble of carryin’ that too far.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

Dear Tom and Ray:

I recently purchased a Ford Contour with traction control. On the dash it has a pushbutton switch to turn off the traction control. Nowhere in the operating instructions does it state when it’s appropriate to turn off the traction control. Since the traction control is automatic, it operates only when needed. So why would you want to turn it off? -Ken.

RAY: Excellent question, Ken. Traction control is a nice, new feature that uses the anti-lock brake sensors at the wheels to determine if a wheel is slipping. If it detects that one wheel is going faster that the other, it applies the brakes to that wheel until it regains traction. That helps the car from slipping around in the rain and snow. And it works pretty well.

TOM: And the only reason you might turn it off is when it’s working too effectively. For example, let’s say you’re parked on top of a pile of snow. You step on the gas and the wheels start to turn, but they can’t get much traction in the snow. The traction control does what it’s supposed to do; it uses the brakes to stop the wheels from spinning. The problem is, now you can’t get out of the parking space.

RAY: And in that case, you really do want the wheels to spin. So you’d turn the traction control off and start moving back and forth, back and forth...letting the friction from the spinning wheels melt the snow as you move a little farther forward and a little farther backward each time. And if you do that long enough...

TOM: You’ll eventually burn out your clutch! And end up with your wheels a foot deep in snow. Sometimes you just have to know when to give up and get some help.