Nations Bank/County Negotiations.

The negotiations by Jasper County to purchase the Nations Bank building on the Carthage Square neared completion yesterday with Nations removing the requirement that the County furnish janitorial services. In consideration for that, Nations requests a reduction in annual lease payments of ninety-one cents per square foot, or $12,387 per year. That figure would place the cost of the five year lease of the basement and ground floor by Nations, part of the sales agreement, at $460,915. The agreement also allows options for an additional ten years to be taken by Nations, at a slightly higher rate.

Presiding County Commissioner Danny Hensley told the Mornin' Mail that he did not want the County to be in the janitorial business. Nations had originally requested that service in their lease agreement.

If the $650,000 deal is approved by the County Commission, the County would have use of the upper level of the building.

If the janitorial service is removed, Nations would be paying $4.09 per square foot for the 6,312 square foot basement, and $9.09 for the 7,301 square foot at ground level per year.

Elk Street Project Vote.

During a ten minute meeting Tuesday afternoon, members of the Public Works Committee voted to recommend that the low bid for an Elk Street improvement project be presented to the full Council.

Only two bids were received for the project which includes street work and storm water runoff improvements in the area of Elk Street and Grand Avenue. Groundworks and Southard were the bidders. The low bid of $92,323 was offered by Southard. Groundworks’ bid was $107,270.

City Engineering Department Head Joe Butler told the Committee approximately $66,000 was budgeted for the project. Butler said some expenses would be recouped from the church and bank in that area and that the engineering fees could be removed from the project budget and worked into the Engineering Department’s budget line item for professional fees. That would still leave the project about $10,800 short.

Butler said he thought the Southard bid was a good one and did not recommend rebidding the project. According to Butler, several other projects have come in under budget this year so more money may become available for Elk Street without having to amend the budget.

Committee Member Larry Ross said he would like to "get the project moving," and acting on a motion from Ross, members voted unanimously to recommend the low bid. Committee Member Charlie Bastin was not present.

"Try to get some figures together so we know where we stand in the big picture," Committee Chair Bill Fortune said. "It looks like right now we’re under on quite a few other projects. If we go over on this one, it’ll be the end of the year before we see where we really stand on everything."

1999 Calender Booked With Great Artists!!

by Robin Putnam, artCentral

Wow...it's hard to believe it's only two weeks until Christmas. It's also hard to believe we will soon be leaving our beloved Geranium House. We've had some really great times here!! We've made sooo many new friends and seen sooo much terrific artwork. At least we'll be leaving with a lot of wonderful memories and adding another chapter to artCentral's history.

Having restarted this organization in the Geranium House it has allowed us to grow into our shoes, so to speak. We've been able to get a grip on the ins and outs of taking care of this type of an operation. We feel the space we've occupied here has helped Helen and myself keep artCentral manageable.

Helen's membership work has been great!! We are now up to 128 members!! Yeah!! Clap, clap!! We really appreciate all her hard work!! And we appreciate everyone of those members!!

Mary has been taking good care of the Wednesday Life Drawing sessions and we want her to know we appreciate all she has done!! We're sorry to say she has to give up her role as the organizer but we understand and wish her the best!! We thank her very much for all of her hard work this last year!! Two of our members, Kit Tuck and Penny Wilkinson will be taking over as of January. We thank them for offering the help!! Due to the upcoming holidays we will not be having the sessions again until the first Wednesday in January. We hope to see everyone then and hopefully some new faces as well!!

Our Sunday afternoon volunteer, Dytri, has been steadily been working in clay and has recently done a glaze firing!! Her trip to Sante Fe has really paid off...her glazes were down right gorgous!! Seems she picked up some really great pre-mixed glazes at the Sante Fe clay Co.!! Way to do, Dytri!!

When we decided to rent out the Geranium House for holiday gathering we didn't feel the space would allow for any type of large dinner party but boy were we WRONG!! Victorian Carthage served a prime rib dinner to forty people from Colorado!! It was truly amazing!! Jo Ellis and her troupe of volunteers are magic!! Everyone loved Jo's cooking and the kitchen and wait help were soooo good they had the whole dinner crowd so awed they actually thought we were a real restaurant!!

Anyway...everyone had a great time. Some left with one of our cookbooks, which Jerry was gracious enough to sign, some left with a handful of our postcards, most left very full and ready to head back to Colorado.

So...keep us in mind next time you want an unusual place to have a party!! We think it worked out very well!!

If you haven't come out to see Jerry's work you'd better hurry.......Jerry will be retrieving his wonderful paintings sometime around the 29th of this month. You don't have much time left!!

More........next week.

Just Jake Talkin'
Mornin',

Believe it or not, this weekend is the last before Christmas. Time ta get serious about gettin' all those gifts ya been thinkin' about.

Our family gatherin' is gonna try this deal with ever'one bringin' a five dollar gift and draw a number then exchange or take someone else's gift. For the last two years it has worked but with some ruff edges. The rules are modified each year a little tryin' to make it fun but not get anyone upset.

The real challenge is ta find somethin' for less than five bucks that isn't just a gag gift (although I purposely traded for the gag gift last year).

Havin' the limit does make ya spend some time shoppin' and puttin' a little thought into it. That in itself prob'ly makes the game worthwhile. Sometimes "rules" actually have a useful purpose.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin'.

by

Oak Street health & herb

Natural Nutrition

by Mari An Willis

Estrogen is addressed by Dr. Paul Barney, M.D. as the "hormone of war and peace!" Estrogen supplementation has been extensively studied over the past fifty years, and the decision to supplement still remains controversial. The benefits seem to be many, but the risks are still very serious. Deciding that there is no black and white answer tot he situation, medical research over the past 3 years has focused on estrogen like compounds found in plants phytoestrogens. The results have been almost too good to be true.

The earlier studies were mostly looking at the dramatic decrease in breast, prostate and colon cancers from the eastern or soy based diet verses the wheat based diets of Americans. The conclusions are that phytoestrogens mainly genistein, if supplemented into the diet can provide protection for bones and heart.

Dr. Barney continues to state that a preventive soy based diet would contain 40 grams of soy corresponding to 25-40 mg. of genistein. The studies with breast and prostate cancer cells were higher at 180 mg.

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