Ten people spoke about the effects of Renewable Environmental Resource’s odor emissions during the Citizen’s Participation period of Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Some of the speakers live as close as a mile from the plant and some live outside City limits. All spoke of how the emissions affect their daily lives, business, and how it reflects upon the town to tourists. A spokesman for citizens on the issue presented a petition with over 600 signatures which he gave to the mayor for use in the meeting with R.E.S. on Wednesday.

Further items on the agenda included an ordinance authorizing the Mayor to sign an agreement between the City of Carthage and the Harry S. Truman Coordinating Council for grant administration services for a block grant for the Downtown Sidewalk Project.

The project would replace sidewalks for the block between Main and Lyon streets and between 3rd and 4th streets. The grant is contingent upon the private investments of Mariposa Ranches, who own property on the block and will also be responsible for the creation of 14 new full-time jobs.

If there is anything that can get the attention of state and federal regulators it is a unified voice of dissention.

From all appearances, the City, the citizens, and those who live within’ a two mile radius of the bottoms all agree. The odor that has been generated from time to time by the RES plant is obnoxious. There was no one standin’ up at the Council meetin’ Tuesday evenin’ speakin’ in favor of the odor. Some did appreciate the investment and ideal of producin’ petroleum products from otherwise waste products, but the odor was not tolerable to anyone.

From all indications the emission is also a concern of RES. Their fundin’ is based on Federal grants and any future expansion of the enterprise will no doubt use Carthage as a reference. They need us satisfied.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto

Dear Tom and Ray:

My father has a 1989 Chrysler LeBaron with 56,000 miles on it. I was amazed when he told me that he has never changed the air filter on it. I told him he was crazy and that it needs to be changed. He came back with the old "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." He says he does not drive on dirt roads, and the car has low mileage, so he does not have to change the air filter. Please settle this debate. Is he crazy? - Paula

RAY: Well, he might be crazy, Paula. But we can say with certainty that he’s an A-one cheapscate. And he’s wrong about the air filter.

TOM: You don’t have to drive on dirt roads to clog up your air filter. There’s plenty of dirt in the air and around the engine.

RAY: The air filter is there to prevent that dirt from being sucked into the combustion chambers, where it can scratch and score the cylinder walls and ruin the engine.

TOM: Usually when a filter gets really dirty, the engine will start to run poorly due to lack of air. Some people (maybe your dad does this) then remove the filter and bang it against their hand to shake some of the dirt out of it. This can work for a while. But eventually, the paper that does the actual filtering disintegrates. And then you’ve got no filter at all.

RAY: And that’s not good. Over time, the cylinder walls will get scored, and the car will start burning oil. So this is one of the things that IS worth "fixing," even though it isn’t "broke."

TOM: Plus, it only costs 10 bucks. I mean, there’s cheap, and then there’s silly-cheap.