Story On HH Highway Accidents

Concern was raised about an increase in accidents near the intersection of HH Highway (Fur Road) and Hazel Street during the regular meeting of the City Council Public Safety Committee last Monday night.

Police Chief Dennis Veach reported that the number of injury accidents in this area increased in 1998. According to police records there were 12 accidents with seven injuries in 1997. From February to December 1998, there were 14 accidents with 25 injuries. The first injury accident occurred in April. According to the report compiled at Veach's request, nine of the accidents occurred between 3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., during the after school hours.

"I was out there during the wreck on December 13th, when they had to life flight someone," explained Council Member Don Stearnes. "While I was there, someone came up to me and asked if there was anything we (the City Council) could do.

"I am very concerned about this situation because of the schools.

"If a school buss from Steadley comes on top of that, I'm worried about the kids."

Veach said with the additional traffic linked with the new additions of Steadley Elementary School, A & W Rootbeer, new apartment buildings, the Wal Mart Supercenter, and the Precious Moments Hotel has increased the number of accidents.

"It's tough to see over the overpass, and combined with the speed and intensity of the traffic," Veach said. "That has probably attributed to the accidents at Hazel."

Council Member Charlie Bastin made several suggestions.

"We're just going to have to acknowledge that with the continued development of Myers Park and with the new high school going out by Steadley Elementary School, that we are just going to have to lower the speed limit to 35 for the safety of the school system," Bastin said. "We are also going to have to look at putting in a four way stop light at Hazel and Fur Road."

In addition Bastin suggested the Council might need to look at a spotlighting structure similar to what Springfield has at the Kansas Expressway & I 44 interchange.

"They have at least five stoplights to regulate traffic," explained Bastin. "I think that's the effect that we want."

Bastin said even three stoplights between the Hazel and Fur Road intersection and two along the overpass might alleviate the traffic problems.

Council Member Jackie Boyer brought up the fact that H H Highway is a state road.

"You cannot put up anything on a state road way without permission," explained Boyer. "You can't put up any signage without their permission."

She suggested the Committee compile and present a more complete package of information to Mayor Kenny Johnson.

"This will need to be a cooperative effort between the City and State," Boyer said. "We need to give them all of the facts that we have."

Just Jake Talkin'
Mornin',

There are variations in the rules for almost any game. As kids part of the ritual at the beginnin' of any contest was to establish the rules. If after a while the majority wanted to modify the original agreement, the game would change. A very basic lesson in democracy. 'Course if one of the players didn't want to play by the new rules, he could always go home.

Most of the time the less rules, the more fun. Like friendly clod fights. Throw a clod, take your chances. The only real rules was no physical contact with opponents and no rocks. Clod contact was, of course permitted at any reasonable distance.

The amazin' thing is that rules were pretty well adhered to after they were set, accepted as part of the game.

This participation in the formation of rules may be a major missing component of the video game frenzy.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin'.

by

Carthage Printing Services

Intro to the Internet

There are a lot of great reasons to use the Internet. Here’s a couple of reasons why most people spend time on-line.

* Electronic Mail- Ask anyone who uses it and they’ll tell you life wouldn’t be the same without it . Electronic Mail ( or E/Mail) is a great way of communicating on the Internet. Not only can you send and receive letters but you can also attach documents ( files, ect.) to your messages.

* Research - The Internet holds an enormous amount of information from all corners of the earth. You can access on-line Encyclopedias, Libraries, Ect. to gain information on almost any topic you might be looking for. Once you find that information, you can print it (as well as any pictures you might see) or save it to a disk.

* Business - Look up telephone numbers in an interactive phone book, access competitor sites, track UPS of Fedex packages, plan a business trip, or simply order a pizza on-line. The list of things that could help you at work is endless!

* Advertising - for a small fee you can put your own company on-line! Advertise your product where up to 50 million people could have access to it.

* Internet communications - Create a secure (employee only) Internet site where you could store data and information useful to your employees.

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