SPEAKOUT

High management increases

THE MANAGEMENT fees paid to Alliance Water Resources from 1993 to 1997 have increased 16, 8, 1 and 15 percent per respectively each year. The overall increase for four years has been 44 percent. When compared with the cost-of-living index and national economy, a 10 percent increase per year in management cost has to be called excessive. The City Council should review the management contract very closely.

Honesty over a check

I JUST received a letter and check in the mail from a woman. The letter is that she had received my check in her post office box a few months ago and had moved and wasn't able to send it immediately. She is an older, disabled lady and could very well have used the money herself. For Christmas she had only three cans of peas and two oranges. She had friends suggesting to her that she should cash the check and spend it, but she's a Christian woman, and she thought whoever the check was for might also need the check. Well, I'm the woman who received the check, and it was very much appreciated. She wanted to know that I'd received it, and she did not leave a forwarding address. There's still a lot of honesty in this world, and I'm just calling to say to the woman: Thanks a lot, and it was really appreciated.

Who will pay for road?

ABOUT SCOTT City wanting a separate road to Cape. That would be nice, and we probably need it, but I'd like to know who's going to have to pay for it. Scott City doesn't have any money, like always.

Neighborhood goes to the dogs

TO THE lady at Jackson who complains of people leaving their dogs outside to bark all day while they're at work. I suggest you ride over to Cape, day or night, and park you car on Briarwood and listen for a few minutes. You may return to Jackson with a better feeling about your situation. What was once a quiet neighborhood has truly gone to the dogs.

Streets were driveable

I WANT to thank the Cape and Jackson workers for making the main streets driveable during the ice and snow from all of us who have to drive in it.

Second-rate cable service

A FEW years ago, I placed a call to TCI requesting service to the cable outage problems. A few months later, I contacted TCI again. They said, even without coming to my house to check it out, it's in your TV set. I am now a satellite owner and well pleased with the service. P.S. The TV set TCI said was the problem works just fine. The question I have is how long is the city going to tolerate a second-rate service that charges premium rates? TCI is not customer inclined. It is definitely pocketbook oriented -- its own pocketbook. Come on, Cape, let's get rid of them.

Making up snow days

THIS IS in reference to the Cape Public Schools in the recent snow and ice days. I live on a street directly off Cape Rock Drive which is a major road, and we still had ice over almost all of our street on Friday. Cars were sliding on the ice and children out standing in the extreme cold waiting for the bus would have had a hard time getting out of the way if a car slid toward them. I think Dr. Tallent made the correct decision in calling school off. I hope he will consider using the five extra days already in the schedule in exchange for those missed. Most people I've heard discussing this issue do not want to make the days up and feel it would cause problems for them. Please, send a survey letter home with children and do what the majority of parents want for their children. Furthermore, in the future, please make every effort to have a schedule which does not require school to be in session after Memorial Day. Some people would like to take that week off because the Monday wouldn't count as a vacation day. They could use four vacation days yet be off nine days.

Check lights when driving

I JUST got home. I almost rear-ended a pickup that had no sign of tail lights or brake lights. I picked them up in time in my headlights where I slid and almost hit them, and I flashed my lights off and on hoping to indicate to him that he was having problems with lights. Hope he didn't think I was mad at him or anything. Then I went a few miles further and a fairly new Chevy truck, a greenish colored one, pulled out in front of me. He had no sign of taillights either. However, he went a couple of hundred yards and then turned again. When he turned the signal light on, he had signal lights and brakes. So if someone is driving and they've got people flashing behind or in front or whatever, they need to checks their lights and make sure their lights are all working properly. We had two close ones, and it was because no tail lights and no brake lights in one case and the other, at least, he had brake lights. That helped some. People need to check their lights.

Members should face election

IT LOOKS like the county planning and zoning has great members on its committee and is working for the future. However, I hope they put something in the plan so that you must face re-election from your peers in the respective townships every three to four years. After all, someone with no electorate to answer to, and work does get sloppy. Let's have election every three to four years.

Rodman looks better

IN Speak Out there was a statement that Newt Gingrich and Dennis Rodman were alike. This is wrong. Newt Gingrich and Dennis Rodman have the same amount of class, but Rodman is better looking.

Expenses or minimum wage?

I'VE JUST been reading in the paper about how our lawmakers are wanting to get a raise for their expenses of like $70 per day. It seems a little ironic, these same people were opposed to raising our minimum wage for a person who was trying feed a whole family on minimum wage. If these folks put in a 10 hour day of $7 an hour just for expenses -- that's not counting their regular salary that goes along with it -- I think that's a little outrageous.

Both of them are kickers

I SEE that President Bill Clinton was discussing how much he liked Dennis Rodman. Well, it's not how much he likes Dennis Rodman. It's how much he's like Dennis Rodman. Dennis does a kick to the front side. President Clinton does it to the backside. See, they are just alike.

Star fruit has a name

FOR JOE Sullivan's benefit, the star fruit does have a true name. It is carambola.

Both are perverts

BILL CLINTON spoke publicly and advised Chicago Bulls basketball player Dennis Rodman to admit he acted improperly for kicking a cameraman in the groin. Paula Jones has asked Bill Clinton to apologize for dropping his pants in front of her and asking for sexual favors. Shame on both of these perverts.

Now who wants Medicare cuts?

REMEMBER LAST fall when Clinton, Vice Vegetable Gore and the rest of the Democrats were railing against the Republican plan to cut Medicare spending? Well, guess who wants to cut Medicare spending now that the election's over. Slick Willie, that's who. Of course, that doesn't surprise me, because this guy has been telling whoppers for years. The thing that absolutely amazes me is the number of suckers out there who still believe him.

Bring back WGN and the Cubs

PLEASE BRING back the Cubbies. WGN is the best station for the Cubbies and the Chicago Bears and the Bulls. Why can't TCI just have WGN in Cape Girardeau area? Forget Denver, forget everybody else. There's a lot of Cub fans here.

Speak for yourself, Bill

YOU KNOW, I think Bill Clinton, instead of making a basketball player apologize to somebody for something, needs to be apologizing the American people for the way he's treating the American people's house, the White House. Also, he needs to apologizing to his wife for all the messing around he's done on her instead of making somebody else apologize. I think he's got more than his own to do.

Like a hog needs slop

OH, YES, I do hope Scott City gets their riverboat in the Diversion Channel, because Scott City needs that riverboat and the revenue like a hog needs slop.

County folks use city water

TO THOSE people who are whining about the sales tax increase to fund the water in Cape city as opposed to Cape county having to pay it. Don't tell me you never come to Cape and go to a restaurant and buy a soda. Where do you think that water comes from? And don't you go to the mall and go to the bathroom. Where does that water come from? You use the water in Cape, and you use the water in Cape regularly. How in the world do you think you get to say that you shouldn't have to pay for something that you are using? If people in Cape never allowed anyone else to come into the city to use the water in any way, shape or form, or the sewers, then yes, I would agree with your idiotic logic. But until then, wake up.