Kennebec Journal from Augusta, Maine • 9

One reason it's ao easy to find fault with the Almanac's predictions is that its editors are never afraid to make them This yeaTs 178-page journal goes on to list weather patterns into October while the National Weather Service is cautious about next weather saying is for the rest of the month' for the temperatures to be below mI said National Weather Service specialist Charles Foley far as precipitation goes we expect to be lea than the normal amount So it will be colder and-drier than 1 (The Almanac says it will be slightly colder than usual this month but New BagUnd also will get a little more snow than It usually does Even if the Almanac presents some competition of sorts to the computerJaden technology of other weather experts the journal apparently wen read at the National Weather Service in Maine I was in Boston we ased to take a look at Ftptey admitted not Up years in advance: So an occasional blooper does nothing to diminish the Ugh regard many readers have for the Almanac "Every day I have jihone calls" said Mahnke "Some people want to know what the weather will be on a particular Saturday in 'June because they have a wedding The Almanac also gets calls from anxi-ous snowmobile deders wondering how maqy machines to keep in stock And on one notable occasion in recent years fretful weather watchers in Chicago flooded -the office with calls after they heard the Almanac was ready to predict 100 inches of snow for the Midwest Mahnke is one of five or six editors who put together the familiar yellow-covered Almanac the one that comes with a hole drilled in the upper left-hand comer for easy nail-hanging The staff works on Yankee magazine for most of the year then turns to the annual Almanac chores in time for a July publication The project is no lark says Mahnke' but the staff looks forward to it By SCOTT GIBSON KJ dty editor When the Old Farmert Almanac talks people listen And the 188-year-old journal of rural wisdom and weather breasting says it's giving readers generally reliably predictions again this year "It's been a little adder than we said but we did say that the cold wpuld come in the beginning of the winter" Susan Mahnke said from the publication's Dublin (NH) offices Thursday Mahnke a senior editor at the Almanac for the last bur years says the weather predictions combiner computer forecasts and observations of certain weather patterns a technique the' Almanac leaves vague- The Almanac guessed right on weather pattens around Thanksgiving and accurately warned that New England furnaces would be working overtime in late December Mahnke said When the publication cautioned that Dec 22 to would be dear and very cold tempera tares obliged There were record lows in Maine on Dec when it was II below sero in Portland and again ou Dec 28 when the 20 below reading broke a 12-year-old record The Almanac said it would snow between Jan 4 and I And the heavens parted late Tuesday night Jan I to dump half a foot of snow on Maine by the following day pretty hard to predict the extent of something" Mahnke added modestly But the Almanac can be wrong too The venerable journal let it be known last summer that New England could look forward to a mild winter tM year Afraid not says the National Weather Service in Portland pointing to columns of figures showing this season is rumdag sub- stantially adder than last The thermometer has crept to record-breaking low temperatures on two days this month and those two days last month The Almanac called it right the first time but stumbled slightly in its forecast for early January by omitting that temperatures would creep down to II below sero one morning and to IS below the next In December when the Ahnenac said average temperatures would be about a degrees in New England readings at the airport in Portland said the month-long avenge bandy tapped ll degrees In November the prediction of an average of 41 degrees was 7 degrees too optimistic But on the whole Mahnke thinks the Al-manic is usually riiht always- checking" she said better In winter than we are In summer been pretty dose-to the mark In the last couple of years" The weather predictions are based on those time-tested methods the Almanac leaves te the imagination and the computer predictions of Dr Richard Head a meteorologist who moved from New Hampjhiie to Arizona not too long ago Head supplies the Almanac -with his forecasts and the staff then tempers the information by applying its own formula But because the information goes to the printer in the middle of the summer forecasters are forced to predict weather ltt i a Airport propbsal 'cruel says Augusta lawmaker By DEBBIE SUNE KJ staff writer A recent proposal to turn the Augusta State Airport over to city control was described Thursday as by a local legislator The state Committee on Audit and Program Review supported the turnover in a report released Thursday but one committee member Rep Daniel Hickey of Augusta predicted local lawmakers win unite in an attempt to kill the plan Tbe Democratic legislator said the committee formed under the Maine Sunset Law to review all state spending over a lb-year period approved the dan by an 8-1 vote fraction of the state subsidy is iMt by local citizens through state taxes nt says "This places an unequal burden on resi-deuts of those cities and towns in the state who must support their own airport through property taxes as well as the airport through their state Hickey and other Augusta leaders contend however that the dty has made apodal sacrifices because the capital is located here He said B4 pieces of property in the capital complex have been swallowed up by the state in the last jlecade eroding the tax base say the rest of the state is paying a Hickey said feeling is that we've assumed quite a burden over the unless it is breaking even financially The committee report daims that a series of changes in the airport's operation might make it possible for the facility to even within two to three yean" DiPietro said those changes included in a master plan developed for the airport primarily involve increases in existing rental rates He said some new foes also have been proposed to boost the The committee report argues however that a state-subsidized airport gives Augusta an unfair advantage over other municipalities of the benefits of the local airport accrue to the Auguste area independent of state government yet only a But Hickey who voted against the proposal said he hopes it will be rejected by the 110th Legislature an Augusta representative kind of disconcerting when yen stop to consider the different things we in Augusta have done in order to have the capital Hickey said would seem very cruel if it does end up in our hilltop airport is the only major air carrier facility in the state which is not owned and operated by a municipality The committee contends that situation is unfair to those municipalities supporting their airports The sunset committee cannot force the city of Augusta to assume control of the 'Spoiled' iguana makes self at home airport although its proposed legislation might accomplish that goal anyway The bill recommends the total elimination of state mtirifr wtyufglfd te boost tbe airport's operating budget in the next two years Those cute MMOB in 19M-82 and 171900 in would slice the airport budget in half Richard DiPietro director of the state Bureau of Aeronautics and the airport's manager said the cuts might force Hie facility to seek city support to maintain its current level of services In its sunset report the committee encouraged state transportation officials to all possibilities" of such a shift in control "As an enterprise fond the airport is in- To ward off enemies Cathy puffs out her dewlap apparently unaware that an inflated double' chin is not the least bit intimidating An iguana can be a little monkey Cstlqr and-Caren nearly buried the house don once they overturned a lamp onto a towel in their shared quartan Cathy scorched her face Caren suffered smoke and Gerry took bracket and nails to the light fixture Unlike her roommate Caren was a nervous red we adverse to change particularly in location Moved three yean ago to a larger iguana house Caren unleashed all her frustration on poor Cathy during a daylong brawl Refusing to defend herself Cathy sustained a bite on the leg which bled so profosety Janice had to apply a tourni- queL One iguana Could not survive with the other ao Janice bit the bullet and gave away the aggressor Caren declining the recipient's payment offer "I couldn't sell her anymore than I could sell one of my kids" she explains Exiled with no one her own site or species to pick on crestfallen Caren soon expired from self-inflicted starvation Cathy however is living life to the fullest even laying about IS eggs one year and just last month Such blessed events are "almost unheard of' in captivity says Janice Without a male iguana to fertilize the eggs however no scratching of little daws was to be heard Old maid Cathy is nearly 8 yean old usually the end of the road for an iguana She catches cold more easily now and her skin Isn't the bright green it once was but the Camerons will stick by her to the gnd part with her for the says Janice tear her away feom me for love nor money" When her pet dies Janice says she may call in a taxidermist to preserve Cathy but I'll just have him build her a long pine box" It everyone who can love an iguana Cathy strikes fear in some hearts much to one fiendish fellow's delight I One look at creepy crawler Cathy prompted the Camerons' visitor to ten Gerry "Gee I'd like to borrow that for about one hour and put it in my mother-in-law's tended to be as neaHy self-sustaining as the report says committee recommends that the airport operate at a level consistent with its revenues and should not therefore receive a General Fund Urging the state to transfer airport ownership to Augusta the report adds committee icaHies that reduced appropriations to the airport may cause changes in operation that would Inconvenience local citizens' and appreciates the willingness of the Augusta City Council to discuss the situation" Auguste officials had asked the Sunset committee for a year's delay to study tbe proposal City leaden have said they are hesitant to assume control of the airport Cathy makes herself comfortable By KATHLEEN WAGNER KJ district reporter CHELSEA Cathy the iguana lives the life of Riley The shrunken dinosaur in khaki hide figuratively and sometimes literally walks all over her owners Janice and -Gerry Cameron "We've really spoiled her" Janice admits The 10-pound iguana sleeps on a hid perch in a six-foot long glqsseyn cage a prominent conversation piece in the Cameron living room Janice often opens the door however letting Cathy ddrt anyqrhere she wants up the lace curtains or over to the television for an evening's entertainment As a young iguana no bigger than a pencil Cathy supervised meal prtpara-tion from atop Janice's head Cathy has ruled the Cameron roost since 1072 when Janice bopght Cathy and her late roomate Caren at for apiece Inflation has certainly touched the iguana market: Janice says the going rate has leapt to $1205 -for just one of the Floridian imports Why couldn't the salesman interest Janice in a fluffy pooch or playful! hamster? After all you can't take an iguana for a walk One try and the Camersons discovered that a cat turns ss can turn a docile iguana into a bucking bronco And no iguana will ever fetch a newspaper although Janie says a wild iguana can run up to 80 mph and dived unharmed from a 80-foot tree love reptiles and she's the most in-tresting one I've seen" says Janice explalnin her offbeat taste in pets one of those liicky mothers that's not afraid of snakes or Lucky too for the Cameron children Mark and Wendy who grew qp bragging to their friends "Guess what my mother's got! and writing countless English essays on "My Favorite Pet" A strict vegetarian Cathy dines once' a day on lettuce leaves topped with a half cup of lima beans peas or broccoli fresh or frozen She spits out canned vegetables Baby vitamin drops supple- ment her diet Once she broke from vegetarianism to samples cat's nose the one attached to Samantha the Cameron's Siamese Uncivilized iguanas roaming free in Florida hibernate six weeks out of every year' Janice says but Cathy likes to eat too much to be able to fast Janice Cameron and Mend any longer than a few days A bear for cleanliness Cathy gets a shower from a plant mister every other day "Oh she just loves that" says Janice who squirts the trigger Cathy will not stay put in a bathtub Janice learned that lesson the wet way Preferring a temperature of 82 degrees cold-biodded Cathy basks about two inches below the two light bulbs il-lumiating her domicile which is car- peted in kitty litter When she isn't tending Cathy Janice works part-time at Hall-Dale Manor Gerry is self-employed at Mark Motor Mart A neighbor iguana-sits when the Camerons break away for vacation Cathy returns the' affec- tionl often leaping into arms when he unlatches the pen door "For an iguana she is pretty sociable" Janice says admitting she could do without such ecstatic greetings from a 4-foot 10-inch iguana "She takes everything right in Janice says and if someone does ruffle Cathy's feathers' she just shuts her eyes her eye lids closing from the bottom up "She thinks you can't see' her if she can't see Janice speculates.