A Bang Up Month for CW&EP.

Thursday afternoon the Carthage Water & Electric Plant Board held their monthly meeting in Council Chambers.

Bids for health insurance were discussed at the meeting. According to General Manager Bob Williams, who went over the bids with the board, there were several different packages with several different scenarios. The board voted to use Beimdiek Insurance as their agent and work with them to choose the best coverage.

The agenda included the approval of the financial statement and report of operations for the month of January. According to Chief Financial Officer Chuck Nuse the utility had a consolidated net income of negative $173,408 in January. Although the utility had budgeted a negative income of $146,072, Nuse stated that some of the loss was contributed to a 3 payroll month.

A board member commented that January was a "bang up month, nothin’ but loss, loss, loss."

Mayor Kenneth Johnson attended the meeting, while there commented on the insurance bids and the construction on Fourth Street.

It’s odd how kids can do things ever’day and not have any fancy words for it but somehow they get things done.

Kids are good at puttin’ together a consensus. A plan of action that ever’one can go along with and feel like it’s worthwhile.

Playin’ baseball out in the open field, there were often circumstances that the regular "big league" rules just couldn’t address. Most of the time we didn’t have enough players that were of equal ability so we had ta come up with ways ta lit the younger players play ta make a game.

The fact is, consensus comes from the need to get somethin’ accomplished that’s to ever’one’s benefit. If it wasn’t for that, nobody’d prob’ly agree on anything.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Carthage Printing

THIS IS A HAMMER

By Samantha Mazzotta

Interior Painting

Q: We’re helping a friend paint several rooms in the house he’s restoring, and we’re having an argument. Which should we paint first — the walls or the trim? And, can you offer tips to make the work go faster? — Joseph L., Eastport, Maine

A: The first answer is easy: Paint the walls first, and the trim last. Trim takes much more time to paint because of the level of detail involved, especially in older buildings, which still feature lots of molding.

The only way to make painting go faster, unfortunately, is to spend plenty of time prepping the rooms. This includes scraping away old paint, sanding bare wood, patching drywall and other damage, and replacing rotted wood and deteriorated fixtures.

First, scrape away old paint. If the paint is more than 30 years old, it may contain lead — wear a respirator (not a filter mask) while scraping and cleaning up. Old enamel paint is difficult and time-consuming to scrape away, so budget plenty of time to this task. Latex often lifts away with little effort.

Use spackling compound to cover nail holes and small dents or dings in drywall. Wood putty will fill gouges and small cracks in wood trim and fixtures.

Once the scraping and patching is done, sand the wood smooth with a medium-grade sandpaper, then finish with fine grade. Smooth spackled areas with fine-grade sandpaper as well, and run sandpaper over the walls and glossy trim to help new paint adhere more easily.

Mask off the walls with painter’s tape, available at home-improvement stores. To protect large areas, tape newspaper over the area to be avoided.

Now that you’ve prepped the area (and you’ll be grateful it’s done), start painting. I recommend priming the walls first — a primer with a base that matches the type of paint you’re using, such as oil or latex. Make sure the rooms are well-ventilated, and don’t reuse the brushes or rollers when applying the color coat.

Allow the primer to dry, then paint the walls. Make sure everyone agrees on the direction the brushes and rollers should take — either up and down, or side to side. Let the base coat dry overnight, then apply a second coat if needed. Once all the coats are completely dry, remove the masking tape and begin masking off the trim.