Today's Feature
Carthage History Roundtable.

News release

The Powers Museum announces the first meeting of the "Carthage History Roundtable" to be August 11 at 7 pm at the museum facility, 1617 West Oak Street. The primary focus of this new informal group will be to promote various collections and research resources available at the Powers Museum that are well suited for writing historical features, adapting into reader’s theatre projects and/or first person history character portrayals and storytelling presentations or other creative projects. Teachers, free-lance writers, history researchers, performers, or anyone else interested in such work is welcome to attend. There is no fee for attending and the roundtable is not expected to become a membership organization.

Also, the roundtable will introduce other Carthage repositories at future meetings as well as provide an opportunity for people working on projects who might need some assistance elsewhere, to find out from where or whom that help might be available. While Carthage and the Ozarks region will be the main focus of most programs, the roundtable will address other non-Carthage history topics as brought up by roundtable participants, such as historic costuming, performance leads, etc., as requested or needed. The program will be flexible but a short program on the Wright-Powers letter collection that spans the 1880s to 1950s will be presented by Musuem Curator Michele Hansford. Light refreshments will be served.

For notification about future meetings email pmuseum@ecarthage.com.

Budget Meeting.

The Budget/Ways and Means Committee will meet this evening at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall.

Stench Report:
Friday,
08/05/05

Mild odors in the morning.

The county portion is a small portion of the total property tax bill. The county’s portion generates about $300,000 per year. If you divide that by the approximately 53,000 property tax bills returned to the County this year it equals about $5.50 per household/business per year. For most it is mainly a tax on vehicles. For businesses it also includes fixtures, machinery, equipment, tractors, trailers, livestock and similar assets.

A $30,000 SUV would be taxed about $8.30 by the County. Tax on a $300,000 motor home would be about $83.

On the other side, you could buy about $2,200 in goods and pay an extra $5.50 with the quarter cent tax in place. If it was a trailer, you’d save 60 cents in property tax.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Carpeting 101

Q: I need to replace the carpet on the second floor of my new home, but I know almost nothing about laying carpet. Can you start me in the right direction? — Claudia C., Kansas City, Mo.

A: The most important thing to remember about carpet installation is that preparation is everything. That old carpentry adage, "measure twice, cut once," applies to carpeting as well. You’ll need to carefully measure the rooms to be carpeted, estimate the amount of carpet, decide what type of carpeting to purchase, and then install it so that everything looks uniform.

Measure the size of the room to get not only the total square footage, but the exact length and width. Then, draw a sketch of the room, noting the location of door frames, odd bends, and nooks, like closets. Bring the sketch with you to the carpeting store so the sales representative can get a good idea of how much carpet you’ll need, and how it should be laid out.

And layout is important: that’s the second sketch you’ll make. Once you’ve chosen the type of carpet, find out how long and wide each roll is. It likely will not fit perfectly, and you may have to buy additional pieces or rolls to fill the room. Remember that, when comparing the room measurements to the actual measurements of the carpet pieces, you must allow for a few extra inches of carpet all around the edges of the room and where the carpet pieces meet (the seams). Typically, add 6 inches of carpet to each side of the room, and 3 inches of carpet at the planned seams. The edges will be trimmed away once the installation is complete, and the excess along the seams allows you to cut the carpet pieces so that they match perfectly.

Choose your carpet (and its backing) based on the look, feel and price. Different fibers have a different feel; the way carpets are constructed also affects their appearance and softness. The padding, when selected to match the type of carpet you buy, can mean the difference between a rough, hard feeling, and a soft, warm cushion under the toes. One quick way to compare carpet quality is to examine the backing, or foundation, of carpet samples; a tighter grid pattern usually indicates a more durable and soil-resistant carpet.