Budget Overview.

The budget committee held their second special budget meeting Tuesday evening. At Monday’s meeting the department heads presented their budget request, at Tuesday’s meeting outside agencies presented their budget request.

The outside agencies included The Over 60 Center (requested $13,000), The Chamber of Commerce (requested $85,000), The Humane Society (requested $15,600), The Girls Softball League (requested $2,000), The Youth Softball League (requested $2,000), American Legion Baseball (requested $2,000), and Main Street of Carthage (requested $40,000). The Convention and Visitors Bureau also presented their budget however the funds they receive depend on the lodging tax.

Each outside agency highlighted important expenses and also discussed their access to other means of funding.

Another budget meeting is scheduled to be held Wednesday night. According to City Administrator Tom Short the committee will begin discussing and perfecting the budget. The budget committee has a June 1 deadline to have the budget completed.

The initial marathon budget meetings have been attended by nine of the ten Council members. One is out of town.

The budget process is a great learnin’ experience, especially for new Council members. In a few short days, but long hours, the members get to hear from ‘bout anyone who wants or gets a piece of the City revenues. They especially get to hear from the various department heads concernin’ the plans for the upcomin’ year and what those plans will cost.

Prob’ly most important, is seein’ just how little of the revenue is up for grabs. After ya take out personnel costs and basic costs of doin’ business like gas for police and fire vehicles, street repair supplies, and phone bills, there isn’t much left for pet projects.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

HERE’S A TIP

By Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

I am considering buying a 2003 Toyota Corolla, but I’m concerned that it has an "all aluminum" engine. After the disaster with the aluminum engine of the Chevy Vega, is it likely that Toyota is sacrificing quality for price? Should I be concerned about an all-aluminum engine? I just want a reliable car. My current ‘91 Camry has 313,000 miles. Any chance that will happen with a new Corolla? — Anne

RAY: It’s amazing how fickle we’ve gotten, Anne, isn’t it? You get 313,000 miles out of a car, and when it comes time to replace it, you say, "Hmmmm, I don’t know if I should buy another one of these...Maybe I can find something better."

TOM: The short answer is yes, it’s certainly possible to get similar life out of a 2003 Corolla if you treat it as well as you obviously treated your last car.

RAY: The old Chevy Vega engines didn’t fail because the blocks were made of aluminum. What failed were the cylinder liners. Those cylinder liners were made out of some strange alloy of, like, cubic zirconium and lucite. And when they overheated, they failed and those engines forevermore burned oil.

TOM: But manufacturers have gained a lot of experience in the past 25 years. And I have no doubt that during that time, Toyota has figured out how to make cylinder liners last forever in aluminum engine blocks. After all, Toyota uses all-aluminum engines in its Lexus models, and nobody’s whining about them.

RAY: Aluminum is more expensive and more difficult to cast that iron. But it’s a lot lighter. So it can allow the car-maker to improve mileage or power-to-weight ratio.