Today's Feature

Special Budget Hearing Tonight.

The City Council Budget Ways and Means committee will meet this evening at 7:00 p.m. in a special session, to attempt to finish the fiscal year 2008 budget. The committee additionally made numerous cuts to the budget during last week’s special session.

One of the larger requests for the budget was that from the Carthage Public Library for increased operation costs at the new Library addition. The Library board had requested the use of $54,500 from the Parks and Stormwater Tax to use for this purpose. Library director Jennifer Seaton at a previous budget hearing has told the committee the figure was based on estimations, but that the amount of increase could not be know specifically until the building had been open for a period of time.

The committee last week agreed to grant the Library use of half of the requested amount, $27,250, with the understanding that additional funding may be requested if needed. The committee agreed to meet with Seaton again in 6 months to get an update on the expenses for the new building.

City Administrator Tom Short said he felt six months of operation would give a "good idea" of what the cost would be.

Committee chair Bill Johnson said he felt this arrangement would be "a lot cleaner" than granting the full amount initially without having the knowledge of how expensive the utilities would be.

Several other cuts were made within agency and department budgets, but the totals will not be calculated until this evening’s meeting.

Another significant change is the increase to the Cost of Living Adjustment. Committee member Mike Harris said he felt that the COLA for City employees should be higher than the minimum recommendation, which was a 2.3% increase. Harris said he would like to see the impact on the budget if a 3.3% increase was figured in. Harris said that historically, as the COLA has increased the cost for insurance had also increased and he felt the employees weren’t actually seeing the benefits of the adjustment.

A $25,000 wage study for the City was left in the budget, following much discussion by the committee. Committee member Harris and Council member Claude Newport both voiced the opinion that the money budgeted for the study could be better used by putting it in the budget to make payscales more equitable.

Committee member Diane Sharits said that the Finance and Personnel Committee did not agree with that opinion and had recommended the study.

Both Harris and Newport said they felt that Carthage was unique and that a consultant would just compare the City to other towns of similar population sizes.

Sharits and Short said they felt the study was needed. The item was not cut.

The budget must be brought to Council by the June 12 Council meeting and thus the second special meeting was scheduled for this evening at 7 p.m.

The owner of the small store was at the counter and thoughtfully gave my brother a shiny new penny to put in his new coat pocket.

Mom waited and when the appropriate response was not forthcoming from my brother she asked, "What do you say?"

After a moment, my brother popped up, "Ya got a penny for the other pocket?"

Now I’m not sayin’ that some get narrow minded, just very focused on a particular project and sometimes walk away from the table feelin’ a little let down ‘cause they only got one penny.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Here's A Tip
By JoAnn Derson

• "Cutting boards can be freshened with a simple, eco-friendly cleaner: a lemon! Cut a lemon in half, and rub the cut side all over your cutting board. It usually will take out stains and is great for onion odors as well." -- L.M. in South Carolina

• "I made my own knife block that fits into a kitchen drawer. I took a piece of Styrofoam and made indents by pushing each knife into the block, sharp side down, so that the handle was hanging off the side. Then I took a really thin square of fabric and laid it on top. I worked left to right and put each knife into its slot. The material was pushed down, but stays there. I just trim the extra fabric in areas that bunched up, and pinned the corners and sides with straight pins. Now I have a safe spot for each knife, and the drawer is very organized." -- C.E. in Washington

• "If you have stained wallpaper, try making a paste with baking soda and using it to scrub the paper. It worked in my mom’s kitchen, where the paper was really dirty and had lots of grease. It didn’t bring it totally back, but it looks so much better! Hope this helps someone else." -- B.W. in Pennsylvania

• "If you save the long cardboard rolls from gift wrap, you might be able to tape one onto the end of your vacuum hose to reach out-of-the-way spots, like under the beds, under the fridge and high corners. It has worked for me." -- I.L. in Nevada

• Has your eyeglass prescription changed? Don’t forget to donate those old glasses to Lion’s Club International. For mailing instructions, go online or have a friend help you go online to www.lionsclubs.org and click on "Vision Programs."