| Today's Feature
CVB
Highlights.
A proposed job description for
a director of the Carthage Convention and
Visitors Bureau was reviewed by the CVB Board of
Directors Tuesday morning during their
semi-monthly regular meeting. A proposed budget
was also approved by the Board.
The budget would utilize the
approximate $136,000 anticipated by the
City’s 4% lodging tax on all overnight stays
at motels and bed & breakfasts within the
City.
A salary of $30,000 for the
director, plus benefits, rent utilities, phone,
postage, travel, and $2,500 for support staff
brought the administrative cost to a total of
$48,000. Added to the marketing expenditures of
$70,000 brings the total proposed for the CVB to
$118,000.
The budget also includes
funding for Victorian Carthage of $12,000,
Carthage Historic Preservation, $1,800, and
$4,200 for Community Enhancement.
Listed as part of the duties
and responsibilites of the Director included
"ensures compliance by authorizing all
monetary expenditures" and "Ensures
compliance with the contractural arrangement
between the City of Carthage and the
Bureau."
NASCAR
to the Max
"The Track to Tough to
Tame" lived up to it’s billing in last
Sunday’s Carolina Dodge Dealer 400 from
Darlington Raceway, at least as far as Tony
Stewart was concerned. Stewart appeared to be in
control of the race as the laps wound down. On
lap 225 of the scheduled 293-lap event, Stewart
was caught up in an accident involving 11 cars.
Stewart was the most seriously
injured in the accident and was flown from the
racetrack via Life Flight. Though Stewart was
kept overnight for observation, he was released
Monday with lower back and leg pain, none thought
to be serious. Stewart has stated that he would
be racing at this weekends Food City 500 from
Bristol (TN) Motor Speedway.
Sterling Marlin emerged as the
eventual winner and scored his second victory of
the season. For the second week in a row, members
of NASCAR’s youth movement filled many of
the top finishing positions. Positions 2-6 were
filled by Elliott Sadler, Kevin Harvick, Dale
Earnhardt, Jr., Ryan Newman, and Jimmie Johnson
with Earnhardt, Jr. being the most senior at 27.
Bristol Motor Speedway hosts
the first short track race of the season. NASCAR
designates any track less than one-mile in length
a short track. Bristol is .533 miles in length
with 36-degree banking in the turns and 16-degree
banking on the straights.
With 43 cars starting the race,
it doesn’t take long for the leaders to
begin lapping the back markers. The crowded
racing conditions, steep banking and competitive
drivers leave few finishers without some sort of
sheet metal damage.
Fortunately, aerodynamics does
not play a large role in the outcome with cars
sporting superficial damage able to compete and
contend for the win. Ailing Tony Stewart will
remain a favorite as will short track ace Rusty
Wallace. Elliott Sadler scored the win last year.
Only 5 times in the last 30
years has the eventual NASCAR season champion not
won by the sixth race of the season. This
week’s race in Bristol marks the sixth race
of the season. The pressure will be on.
Missouri
Senior Rx Program.
news release
The Area Agency on Aging Region
Tean is preparing for the next step in the
implementation of the Missouri Senior Rx Program.
Staff will receive training
during the last week of March. Assistance in
completing the enrollment forms will begin after
April 1st. Forms and finalized details of the
program are not yet available through the Area
Agency, but should be received by that date.
Assistance will be provided at
the VantAge Point, the Area Agency central
office, and at the senior centers throughout
Barton, Jasper, Newton and McDonald counties. The
schedule for assistance will be provided as soon
as it has been determined.
Letters to the
Editor
Opinions
expressed reflect those of the writer
and not necessarily those of the Mornin' Mail.
Mornin,
Just played a couple of golf
courses close to Carthage to see how green fees
compared since the city decided that we were too
cheap on our rates ($325-350 per year in the last
3 years). Sarcoxie’s yearly rate is $250 per
year with no added trail fee (surcharge) at all.
Joplin’s Shifferdecker is $312 per year plus
a 35 cent surcharge. Loma Linda South is $400 per
year with no surcharge. Carthage’s new rate
is $400 per year plus a $2.00 per round
surcharge. Being retired for the last 3 years
I’ve enjoyed playing an average of 200 times
a year, sometimes only 9 holes a day. I walk
& carry my clubs, so golf has been very
affordable, a fun sport and good exercise. This
will now cost $400 + (200 rounds times
$2.00)=$800 per year. By 2005 they will raise the
surcharge to $5 per round. This will cost me and
other retirees up to $1,400 per year. Is this a
public course? Did the Steadley Trust money gift
possibly make membership for Carthage golfers
exclusionary? Going from a debt-free course to a
20 year mortgage isn’t much of a gift. My
folks always told me, "if you can’t pay
for it, don’t buy it."
But times are changin’. I
hope city offices are too. Each of you has a
vote. I hope you use it this April to vote a new
leadership into office. Let’s clean house.
Let’s put responsibility spending back into
our city. A government that cares for all of the
people of the city. And one that won’t vote
to make a war-zone of our town around the 4th of
July by changing the ban on fireworks.
David Hall
719 E. 14th, Carthage.
"To Be or Not to
Be"
Sometimes being the
devil’s advocate allows one to disagree with
elitists or self pronounces experts; other times
just not being politically correct can be the
difference between being judged a man or a mouse!
When it comes to the creation
of superfluous layers of bureaucracies, for
instance, by ego driven or power hungry
do-gooders, the individual’s freedom to balk
is still a viable shield against being
mollycoddled into an economic or moral morass of
subservience by the "What If?" crowd.
Those individuals or entities
desirous of prodding the populace into servitude
and frustration would do well to ponder the
individual’s psyche when related to
occasionally being negative, but not a negativist
for the long haul.
Now that this response to
"Just Jake’s" recent challenge is
said, it is simply not by Anon Y. Mous, but by
Dick Ferguson
Now it’s your turn!
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