Today's Feature

Approved Job Description Changes.

The City Council Public Works Committee met Tuesday afternoon in a regular session. Public Works Department Director Chad Wampler spoke to the committee concerning job description changes for the newly approved Nuisance Abatement Officer.

Wampler said that the department wishes to change the name of the officer to "Code Official II", with Code Official I being the code inspector officers. Other changes to the job description included the ability to issue violation summonses and appear in court, assisting Code Official I with issues relating to property maintenance complaints and preparing bid specifications for necessary abatement of violations. The current job description is an adaptation of the description from when the duties were under the control of the Carthage Police Department. The committee approved a motion to forward the changes to the Finance Personnel Committee for review.

Street Commissioner Tom Shelley also advised the committee that he was planning to alter the streets to be paved in the annual paving contract. Shelley said that one of the streets on the current list is Maple Street, from Centennial to Fairview. Shelley proposed removing Maple from the list, due to concerns about flooding if the paving is completed. It was recommended that Mound Street from Garrison to Elm be substituted on the list as it is will require roughly the same number of tons of asphalt, and will be approximately the same cost. The committee was favorable to the idea, though the item did not require committee approval.

Shelley also advised the committee that the Street Department would be spraying for mosquitoes from July 23 through July 27th.

Sometime down the road we acquired a lawn sprinkler to "run through" which was eventually replaced with "squirtin’ each other" with the water hose nozzle.

Sometimes the neighbor kids would join in and ever’one would act like they didn’t wanna be the one squirted.

As the subtleties of the game developed, pinchin’ off the hose and gettin’ someone to look down the nozzle was usually effective with the resultin’ spray as the pinch was released. Playin’ in the water always caused laughter, but I guess summer is a funny time.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Click & Clack Talk Cars
By Tom and Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

Now that I’m 75 percent certain that there will not be another major snow storm in the Northeast, I want to switch from snow tires to summer tires. Do I need to have them balanced and aligned, or can I just swap them out? - Erin

RAY: They don’t need to be aligned, Erin - unless the mechanic is still trying to pay off his alignment machine. Alignment is something you do to the car, and it’s independent of the tires.

TOM: But you DO have to balance the tires, unless your summer tires are mounted on their own set of wheels.

RAY: Balancing involves adding small weights to the inner and outer rims of the wheels to make up for the small inconsistencies in weight in different parts of the wheel-and-tire combination. If you didn’t balance the tires, you’d probably notice a wobbling sensation or a vibration, particularly as the tires got up to higher speeds.

TOM: That’s why we recommend that those of you who live in the freezer sections of the country consider buying four steel wheels when you buy you snow tires, and mounting the snows permanently on those four wheels. You can buy a set of used wheels for $150, or a new set for $250 or so. And then you’ll never have to mount or balance your snow tires or summer tires again. Just pull the winter tires off, toss the summer tires on and... three weeks later, put the winter tires back on again.