The Mornin' Mail is published every weekday except major holidays
Tuesday, January 26, 1998 Volume VII, Number 156

did ya know?

Did Ya Know?. . .The Eminence Chapter #93 Order of the Eastern Star will meet at the Masonic Temple 7th & Maple at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 26. It will be the official visit of Mrs. Patricia West, DDGM 44th District.

 

Did Ya Know?. . .The Carthage Red Cross is having a fund-raiser to replenish the disaster fund after recent area fires. A "Booster Card" can be bought for $10 and can be used 20 times for offers from local businesses. Call the Red Cross office at 358-4334 for pickup or delivery of Booster Cards.

today's laugh

He calls his sweetheart Tomato 'cause no one loves him like his Tomato can.

 

I had hay fever.

You did? Did you have it in the affirmative or the negative?

What do you mean?

Well, there are both kinds. Sometimes the ayes (eyes) have it and sometimes the noes (nose) have it.

 

Oh, Gerald, I've been stung by a wasp!

Quick, put some ammonia on it.

I can't, it's gone.

 

Have you taken his temperature?

No-is it missing?

1899
INTERESTING MELANGE.
A Chronological Record of Events as they have Transpired in the City and County since our last Issue.

The Perry Recital.

Edward Baxter Perry, the noted blind pianist, will appear at the Christian church next Tuesday evening. The Paris journal of April says: "Edward Baxter Perry of Boston, gave a concert yesterday, which was the occasion of a new triumph for this eminent pianist. An old pupil of Liszt and Clara Schumann, Mr. Perry, who has given thirteen hundred concerts in the past ten years in America, is a remarkable virtuoso, interpreting with an equal authority the works of Beethoven, Liszt and Chopin. We had all but forgotten to say that Mr. Perry blind; but all those who applauded his execution so precise, and his cleanness of attack, probably like ourselves, in listening to the virtuoso, quite forgot his infirmity."

Acrobats with Field's Minstrels.

The Faust family of acrobats are booked for a season of 40 weeks with Al. G. Field, and will be in this city tomorrow night.

  Today's Feature

General Public Safety.

 

Fire Chief John Cooper informed the Public Safety Committee during their Monday evening meeting last week that all of the new storm warning sirens are installed and working. Five new sirens have been installed throughout the community in the following locations: in the area of North Garrison, near the CW & EP plant, Fairview and Main, Hazel and Fur Road, and in the Kimberly Lane area.

Each of the new sirens has four times the amount of coverage area as the previous sirens. They will sound alarms in a one mile radius when rotated. In addition, the sirens are also battery operated.

Cooper said that the five older sirens are in working order, but in need of some work to bring them up to the new alarm standards. Currently the old sirens are on a different frequency or channel then the new ones. In order to blow all 10 of the sirens, the fire department would first set off the new sirens, and then once they are finished, switch to the other channel so that the older set could be set off.

With some adjustment, and a new frequency crystal, the older sirens could be tuned into the same frequency as the newer ones. This would allow all of the sirens to be set off at the same time.

"It would make it a lot quicker and less confusing (to set the sirens off at once)," explained Cooper. "All of the sirens overlap, so in some places it will be really loud."

He told the Committee that it would cost $25 per siren to replace the frequency crystal in each siren. In addition he asked for a $500 allocation to have Blue Valley Siren Company in Blue Springs, Missouri come in to clean and check the transmitters on each of these older sirens.

He said it has been at least eight years since the last known maintenance check.

The Committee approved Cooper's request to have necessary maintenance conducted by the Blue Valley Siren Company.

In other business, Police Chief Dennis Veach informed the Committee that under the direction of City Administrator Tom Short, he had taken a close look at the department's cellular phone bills.

The Department spent $5,000 with ATT on last year's cell phone bills between the police phones and those connected with the city taxi service. All taxi dispatching is done by use of cell phones.

The end result of this close look, Veach said, is that they have decided to switch the department from ATT to US Cellular services.

"It will be half the cost, and we've been able to add two more phones...which will give us some more flexibility," explained Veach. "With US Cellular, the first minute is free, and virtually every call to the taxis are under a minute. This cut the rate drastically.

"We are light years better off for half the price," said Veach.

Veach also informed the committee that the Police Department had decided to use block grant funding on new body armor.

"What we have is all outdated, it only has a five year life span," Veach said. "There were lots of things that we wanted, but this was one of the most basic things that we needed."

As a requirement of the block grant, the City will need to match 10 percent of the funding. Depending upon how much the grant money the Department is awarded the City could spend between $500 and $1,000. Once the grant is awarded later this year, the City's cost will be determined. Funding of the grant could replace up to 17 units of body armor.

Veach also told the Committee that he is proceeding with the next step in looking for a Y2K computer consultant. He said that it may cost between $5,000 - $10,000 to find a consultant to look at the Police Departments computer and software needs.

Y2K has become shorthand for the Year 2000, the year of the possible millennium bug. Some computers and microchips will read 2000 as 1900, or not read it at all. Computers might shut down or just run steadily and give users the wrong results.

 

Missouri Association of Counties and Commissioners

Western District County Commissioner Anna Ruth Crampton reported during last Thursday's regular commission meeting about her trip to Jefferson City to the Missouri Association of Counties and Commissioners.

Among the things she learned, concerns the Missouri Department of Transportation.

"Joe Mickes from the Missouri Department of Transportation spoke to the County Commissions yesterday and said that they have a $19 billion shortfall," said Crampton.

She said this shortfall comes at a time when I-70 is 40 years old and in need of upgrading to six lanes of traffic, and when I-44 also needs to be upgraded to six lanes of traffic.

Crampton said Mickes, who is also a Southwest Missouri MoDot representative, will meet with Commissioners on Friday, January 29th to discuss how this shortfall will effect Southwest Missouri.

Another thing stressed at this statewide meeting was the need for E-Mail for County Government.

"We do need to have a e-mail address," said Crampton. "They are stressing that we do have an e-mail address because of the increase cost of postage and delays in receiving items (in the mail)."

Crampton also explained that while in Jefferson City, she learned about the National Association of Counties upcoming national convention in St. Louis in July.

"I would hope that Jasper County would have items to put in those packets to promote tourism in Southwest Missouri," explained Crampton.

She requested the Commissioners look into joining the organization.

"We do have the funds in the budget to join," said Crampton. "There are many benefits. (As a member) we could put things in the folders at the convention."

The Commissioners voted to join the National Association of Counties.

Jasper County Grants

Becky Brill, Grants Coordinator for Jasper County, informed the Commissioners that two new grants has recently been awarded to Jasper County.

One grant was for the placement of trees upon County property.

"We are planting 19 trees, two on the Court house lawn, one in Joplin, and the rest at the Juvenile Detention Center,"

Brill said that two ash trees were being place today next to the Court house. An evergreen tree is being planted at the Joplin Court house.

The other is a $5,000 grant from the Region M Solid Waste Management for tire recycling.

This grant will allow Jasper County officials to hold two county resident only events, where used tires could be collected for disposal.

Brill said the County road crews sometimes pick up an average of 20 tires per day along county roads.

This tire recycling program would allow residents to dispose of the tire waste.

"If it's on your property, your first inclination is to dump them," Brill said. "This will provide a place for them to get rid of them."

Once collected, the tires would be placed upon trucks and taken to recycling facilities in Macon, Missouri, where they would be turned into items such as garden hoses and truck mats.

Mental Health Tax Board

In other action, Crampton asked Jane Wynan, who was representing Spradling if the Commissioners could take action on removing Wes Strobe from the Mental Health Tax Board.

Crampton informed Wynan that the Commissioners have sent registered mail to Strobe, asking for him to confirm his address.

"We have sent letters registered, returned requested," explained Crampton. "He didn't sign for one, but (he did sign) for the one we sent stating that we understood that he had moved, he signed for it,"

Wynan said that since the letter from the Commissioners was signed for on December 15, Strobe has had adequate time to respond to the Commissioner’s request for an address conformation.

Crampton said if this was all right, then Commissioners would receive nominations to fill the opening on the Tax Board.

Leadership Carthage

Swingle Neil, also representing the Carthage Chamber of Commerce, explained to the Commissioners about the County Day for the new Leadership Carthage Class.

She told them she is responsible for putting together the Jasper County Government class for the 15 Leadership Carthage students.

On Thursday, February 25, the students will begin the day at the County Jail, and then move to the Court house to observe the weekly County Commission meeting.

"I am wanting all of the county officials to come in at 9 a.m., to be available for all of the students," explained Swingle Neil. "I would like for each office to have something printed that they could hand to the students, to explain what their job function is." The morning will also include a tour of all of the office in the Court house, and a tour of the records annex.

 


Commentary

Martin "Bubs" Hohulin

State Representative, District 126

Wow! What a difference a year (and a U.S. Senate race) makes. For as long as I have been in office, we have tried to increase the dependency exemption on state income tax returns. For decades, working Missourians had only been able to deduct $400.00 per dependent from their state income taxes. We had tried for several years to raise that to $1200. At every step of the way we had been opposed on this by Gov. Mel Carnahan and most of the democrats in the legislature. At one point we were even told that it would be irresponsible to cut taxes. We were told we couldn’t afford a tax cut of that size. That is totally wrong. Forget for a minute that the budget has ballooned nearly a billion dollars a year under Gov. Carnahan.

That would be reason enough to say we could "afford" it. The fact is that there is no such thing as government "affording" a tax cut. The reason is that the money doesn’t belong to the government, it belongs to the citizens that earn it. To say that the government can’t afford a tax cut is giving validity to the notion that money belongs to the government and if the citizens are allowed to keep any of it, well, then government is just being generous. We also have been told that if we cut taxes too deeply, it will put our children’s future in danger.

What?! If the day ever comes that you or I can’t spend our hard-earned money on ourselves and/or our kids better than the government can, then we have reached a low point of no return in our society. Let me beg one thing of you; don’t ever get the idea that when you wake up you immediately have to turn to Jefferson City or Washington D.C. for your happiness. If you live your life like that, you will have a very unhappy existence.

Anyway, after six years of opposing our tax cuts, suddenly this week, Gov. Carnahan has become a tax-cutting zealot. In his State of the State Address he is now proposing an increase in the personal deduction on state income tax returns as if cutting taxes is a new idea. Actually I guess it is a new idea for him. After all, this is the man that raised your taxes in 1993 more than any other governor in the history of Missouri and yet had the nerve to tell us in his Address that "By any objective measure, Missouri is a low tax, low spending state". I actually find this offensive coming from the man that inherited a state that was ranked 49th in personal tax burden and quickly took it to 16th. That is not the kind of race to the top I want to win.

Now after all that he says he wants to cut taxes. All I can say is welcome to our side, Governor. You can count on our continued leadership on this issue.

As usual, I can be reached at House post office, State Capitol, Jefferson City, MO 65101, or 1-800-878-7126, or mhohulin@services.state.mo.us for your questions, comments. or advice.


 

Just Jake Talkin'
Mornin',

Just ta bring ya up to speed if ya haven't already been informed.

Third Ward incumbent J.D. Whitledge did in fact file to run for reelection. I told ya on several occasions that he would definitely not do that. I was tellin' ya what I was told, straight from J.D. himself. There was apparently some last minute change of heart that I was not privy to. That happens from time to time I suppose. Still I must apologize to our readers who have grown accustom to the Mornin' Mail bringin' ya only the honest ta goodness facts. It is a source of pride around here to get the story straight, especially when it comes to the public workin's of the City Council.

Several year's ago we used the slogan "The Mornin' Mail, more fact and less crap." I guess the latter has a way, on occasion, of seepin' through the cracks.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin'.

Sponsored

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McCune Brooks Hospital

Weekly Column

Health Notes.

FOLIC ACID: Evidence that folic acid helps prevent many types of birth defects continues to come in from studies around the world.

According to an article in an issue of CRN News, a publication of the Council of Responsible Nutrition, researchers in Ireland found that the risk of babies being born with Spina Bifida, or other neural tube birth defects was linked to the folate levels in the mothers’ red blood cells.

This is one of the more recent studies done over several years. It points up the importance of encouraging increased folate consumption by fortifying flour or other food staples with folic acid.

 

CALCIUM UPDATE: If you have a lactose intolerance problem, you can still take in adequate amounts of calcium from dairy sources such as yogurt and hard cheeses. You can also find calcium in foods such as tofu, sardines, salmon (eat the bones, too!) kale, and broccoli.

Incidentally, many people who believe they are lactose intolerant may find they can tolerate lower amounts of dairy foods. Dr. Michael Levitt of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, says, "It’s often more a question of how much milk one drinks than whether one can drink any milk at all."


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