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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRap-A-Round Newsletter 12.30.1993The RAP-AmROUND Volume V, December 30, 1993 ANNIVERSARIES The City and its organization are people and these people have served the City well. We celebrate the following employment anniversaries which occur during the next two weeks: Twenty -Seven Years WAYNE BENDER Electric Operations & Maintenance Ten Years RUTH GONZALEZ Utility Office Nine Years LES BUNTE Fire Suppression Eight Years TOM LEGGITT Fire Prevention Three Years GEORGE LUERA Wastewater Collection Two Years JOHN KOPACZ Police Patrol One Year TAMI BUKOWSKY Vehicle Service Center MICHELLE MARTINEZ Police Operations Georgetown IRIS AND OUTS Welcome Judith Fabry recently joined the Library staff. Stop by and introduce yourself. Goodby George Altamirano left City employment. We wish him well. PERSONNEL The Employee Recognition Luncheon held on the 17th was a huge success. The Directors did a great job planning and making the event a lot of fun. The room was festive. The food was delicious . Door prizes were given throughout the meal (of course some people had to answer Georgetown trivia to win their prize.) Various people talked about awards the City has won this past year. Over 40 active committee members were recognized. Gary Satchell was the lucky employee who won the Customer Service Grand Prize. Employees of the Year were: Community Owned Utilities - Ted Hodgkiss, Jimmy Carrenco and Bart Bowden; Community Services - Joy Marion; Development Services / Management Services - Janis Russell; Finance & Administration - Joanna Brandon; Fire - Laura McMaster; Parks - Robert Pierce; Police Civilian - Barry Trefftzs; Police Officer - Steve Benton. City-wide Employee of the Year was Gabriel Dominquez and Manager of the Year was Jim Landry. The day proved the excellent caliber of Georgetown S taff. PAYROLL f J0 Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service Notice 797. (Rev.. August 1993) Possible Federal Tax Refund Due'to the Earned Income Credit (EIC) What Is the EIC? The EIC for 1993 is a tax credit for certain workers who have a qualifying child (as defined on the back of this notice). It is made up of these three credits: • Basic credit. This credit can be as much as $1,434 ($1,511 if you have more than one qualifying child). - • Extra credit for child born in 1993. For people who have a qualifying child born in 1993, this credit can be as much as $388. • Health insurance credit. For people who paid for health insurance in 1993 that covered a qualifying child, this credit can be as much as $465. May I Claim the EIC? You may be able to claim the EIC for 1993 if you work and meet all the following conditions: • Your 1993 earned income and adjusted gross income are both less than $23,050..Adjusted gross income generally is the total of your wages, interest, dividends, alimony received, and certain other income minus the total of your allowable deductions for contributions to an IRA, alimony paid, and certain other deductions.,. -� You have a qualifying child. • Your filing status is single, married filing a joint return, head of household, or qualifying widow(er) with dependent child. • You do not file Form 2555, Foreign Earned Income, or Form 2555-EZ, Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. ■ You are not a qualifying child of another person. Cat No. 63924Z The 1993 instructions for Forms 1040 and 1040A and Pub. 596, Earned Income Credit, explain in detail who may claim the EIC: You can get them from IRS offices or by calling 1-800-TAX-FORM (1-800-829-3676). How Do I Claim the EIC? If you are eligible to claim the EIC, you must fill in and attach Schedule EIC to your 1993 Form. 1040A or Form 1040. Note: The social security number of a qualifying child born before 1993 must generally be shown on Schedule EIC. If eligible, you can file a tax return and claim the EIC to get a refund even if you have no tax withheld from your pay or owe no tax. For example, if you had no tax withheld in 1993 and owe no tax, but are eligible for a $330 EIC, you must file a 1993 return to get the $330 refund. EIC with your pay. if you are eligihie to claim the EIC in 1994, you may be able to get up to $102 a month with your pay, For details, get Form W-5, Earned Income Credit Advance Payment Certificate, from your employer or by calling the toll -free number above. If you get EIC with- your pay, you must file a 1994 tax return. Who Is a Qualifying Child? Any child who meets all the following requirements is a qualifying child: • The child is your son, daughter, adopted child, stepchild, foster child, or a descendant (for example, your grandchild) of your son,daughter, or adopted child. A child who is married at the end of 1993 generally must be claimed as your dependent. • The child is under age 19 or a full-time student under age 24 at the end of 1993, or is permanently and totally disabled. • The child either lived with you in the United States for more than half of 1993 (for al of 1993 if a foster child) OR was born, or died, in 1993 and your home was the child's home while he or she was alive. Notice 797 (Rev. 8-93) >t U.S.GI.P.O. 1993 343-059/80004 RAP -A -ROUND 12/30/93 Page 2 CUSTOMER SERVICE Bob Stevenson: Recently, a delivery of tires was made at approximately 5:15 p.m. Bob discovered the delivery service in the COU compound, opened the warehouse, and helped unload the tires. He then made sure the warehouse was secure before leaving. As it turned out, the tires were needed desperately. Thanks Bob! Johnny Munoz: Johnny came to the rescue when he noticed an officer having difficulty attempting to unlock a vehicle. Johnny did this while on his lunch break and showed the couple who they assisted that the Employees of the City of Georgetown are willing to help its citizens, as well as fellow employees. Laurie McClure: At the last Convention & Visitors Bureau Board meeting, the Board unanimously recommended that Laurie receive special recognition for the hard work and dedication she has shown. Laurie always goes out of her way to work on a project or document. When given an assignment, she never hesitates, she just smiles. Scott Williams: Scott continually puts forth the extra effort. He goes over and above his call of duty by working extra hours in the Youth/Activity Center. Scott is a great role model for the kids. This is above and beyond his regular job at Parks and he does it on his OWN time. Thanks, Scott, for your great attitude and willingness to help. Juan Cordova: Juan came to the rescue by helping put up the Christmas tree in the Municipal Building lobby. He took on the task himself, so that the utility department and building inspections could wait on the customers. Juan is always willing, no matter what the task. Sandra Lee: Sandra had arranged for a Monday off and then everything fell apart: Stephanie was out with a sick child, Elizabeth was in orientation all day, several other people were out of pocket and it was Cari Speegle's first day. Sandra graciously agreed to come in that morning to train Cari. This is by no means the first time she has done this. Sandra is constantly re -arranging her schedule when last-minute things come up. She is a tremendous benefit to the City and our citizens. Terry Jones and Ed Barry: Shares go out to Ed and Terry for their efforts to bring the Lakeaire Shopping Center sign in compliance with the City's recently adopted sign ordinance. Ed kept on top of the situation and Terry assisted by arranging to have the top two sign panels removed. Their cooperation and diligence has resulted in a more attractive sign and demonstrated public trust by complying with the requirements of the sign regulations. Bill Zimmerhanzel, Jim Landry, Mary Lee Prigge and Donna Kirk: A citizen wrote in from River Haven Nursing home to thank these individuals for their efforts in the Rent -A -Santa program. This team worked together and developed the program which has taken off with a bang. Santa visited the nursing home at no charge. What a treat for the residents. You are great! Ike Lambert, Billy Strickland, Rodney Montgomery, John Montgomery and Scott Gibson: This group generously volunteered to assist the Airport Staff in relocating the deer that were inside the game fence. These deer presented a danger to pilots and their removal was important to the safe operation of the Airport. Not only did these volunteers donate their time, but also used their personal vehicles during the activity. Because of their participation and timely input, this safety - related project was extremely successful. Thanks, guys! Donna Duncan: Donna was awarded shares for her cooperation in running queries for Ruth and Kathy when they were having a problem with the posting of meter deposits. The wait for queries can take one to two days, but Donna put her own work aside and ran the queries immediately. Donna saved Ruth and Kathy several hours of manually researching the information. Thanks, Donna, for showing genuine concern for assisting other City employees. RAP -A -ROUND 12/30/93 Page 3 DEPARTMENT UPDATES Information Services ASCII DOS file basics Part III .w Last issue, we spent some time discussing what the different types of DOS commands were. The commands are differentiated by where they are BW stored and where they can be used. This time we will begin looking at the way DOS stores files. DOS File Identification Rules Since DOS must have an identifier for a file, we will first discuss DOS naming conventions. Naming conventions are the ways that you are allowed to identify your files. In DOS (other operating systems may be different), you have a total of 11 places to use for your identifier. These 11 places are broken into a name (8 places) and an extension (3 places) separated by a period (see below). XXXXXXXX XXX Name Period Extension Above, x stands for any allowed character. The name is required, but the period and extension are optional. In the name portion, the following characters are allowed. Wr The letters A through Z. Capitalization does not matter, DOS converts all characters to the same case internally. ow The numbers 0 through 9. BW The only special characters allowed are the following: underscore caret dollar sign $ tilde r exclamation point ! number sign # percent sign % ampersand & hyphen - braces 0 parentheses Q at sign Qa apostrophe ' and grave accent ` A name must not contain spaces, backslashes (\) or commas. A name must not be any of the following reserved words: DOS command names CLOCK& CON AUX NUL PRN COMn (Where n = 1 - 4) LPTn (Where n = 1 - 3) Some programs require an extension that is specific for certain types of files. Examples are the following files and the programs that require them. xxxxxxxx is any valid name. xxxxxxxx.dbf Dbase III or IV database file aoQaxxxxx.doe Microsoft Word document xxKnim.wk4 Lotus 1-2-3 Release 4.0 file XXXXXXxx.wpg WordPerfect graphic file When an extension is required you cannot change it. The effects of changing it can be as simple as the program not being able to display the file, to loss of the data created by the program. In the extension, the following rules concerning characters must be obeyed. RAP -A -ROUND 12/30/93 Page 4 The letters A through Z are allowed. Capitalization does not matter, DOS converts all characters to the same case internally. BW The numbers 0 through 9 are allowed. Wr The special characters noted above under names are allowed. or The following extensions, which DOS uses, are not allowed .EXE (executable) . COM (command) .SYS (system) .BAT (batch files) DOS File types Next we will look at the types of files in DOS. There are many different files that you use or create, but they can be grouped as follows; command, program, data, text, system and batch files. We will look at each group of files below. Command Files Command files have an extension that ends in .COM. Command files are limited to 64 KB in size. Most external DOS commands prior to DOS version 5.0 were command files. The advantage of command files is the small size. Often they are used for small but helpful programs that are loaded into memory to make your computing easier. Examples include custom keyboard settings, virus protection and clock programs. Program Files Program files are those files with an extension of .EXE. These files contain the instructions for applications like WordPerfect and 1-2-3. Additionally, a number of the newer DOS features are program files, due to their increasing size. An example can be found if you look at your WordPerfect directory. You will find a WP.EXE file for DOS users and WPWIN.EXE for Windows users. Data Files Data files can be broken into two groups based on their extensions. The data files generated (or saved) by programs that require a specific extension (like those listed above) are known as specialized data riles. Data files that can have any extension are just called data riles. Some organized computer users assign an extension to their data files (like Inn for forms) to help them locate all the information they save. Data files are often saved in a proprietary (custom) format which prevents the data from being read without a copy of the program. Text Files Text files are often called ASCII files. ASCII stands for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, which is a system used to represent text. Text files often have an extension of .TXT. Many programs and systems can convert data to an ASCII format. This allows information to be transferred between systems, applications and users. There are specialized text files that format data for transfer between programs. These files include SDF - Space Delimited File and Comma Delimited which are the two most common. Text files can be read by using the DOS type command or with a text editor. System Files System files contain information about your computer system and the hardware that is installed on it. The extension for a system file is .sys. This information is needed so software can use the advanced functions that modern hardware is capable of. An example is WordPerfect which can talk to standard video hardware, such as VGA. To use high resolution VGA, you would need a special system file (also known as a device driver) to tell WordPerfect specifically about your particular video setup. There is a special system file called config.sys. This file must be present in your root directory at start-up. This file contains information that allows you to customize your computers operating parameters. Specialized device drivers needed by programs can also be loaded here. Batch Files A batch file is a text file that contains DOS commands and ends with a .bat extension. Batch RAP -A -ROUND 12/30/93 Page 5 files are used to automate DOS operations and allow processing to occur required. Mast peowithout your intervention being ple have seen hatch files used by software vendors to install basic programs. There is a special batch file called autoexec.bat. This file is required at start-u p. veral environment settings (such as how YourDOSPrompt looks) are set here. Many programs also require a special statement called a path. These are Placed in the autoexec.bat file by the installation Program or you must go modify it. In this article, we have covered how DOS identifies files. We have also covered the types of files that DOS recognizes. Next time we will begin looking at how DOS actually stores information on disks. Good computing! REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Joanna Brandon, Jeff Clausius, Stej)hanie Crenshaw, Kathy Ragsdale and Janis Russell. Please submit ads or articles you would like in the newsletter to Joanna Brandon BY 5:00 the Tuesday before payroll. C3�3Qd4�l��n "SINCE WE K NOW I'MGOING TO GET SICK TXMING THE NEXT 12 MONTHS, 'A of The best to you and yours. Have a Safe and Happy New year ! RAP -A -ROUND 12/30/93 "PLEASE SEND NE AN ADVANCE 6N My CLAl M5. " I ed 00 L- Page 6 DEPAR.TNIENT UPDXTES --I Utilities The RAP.A.ROUIVV Volume V, December l7, 1993 Georgetown ANNIVERSARIES The City and its organization are People have served the Cit well. We celebrate people andese following employment anniversaries which Occur during the next two weeks; Fives JAMES ROSE Police Patrol PATRICK HURLEy Police Patrol Thre-ors DONNA RdGNS HOGG Legal Department w T- LAURA m RRAy Management Services INS AND OUTS New Job... Stephanie Crenshaw recently moved to Human Resources to help Teresa. I'm sure we'll all get the same quick and friendly service position. from her in her new Welcome... Stephanie's leaving left the Administrative Assistant Management Services lucky and found Position vacant. Elizabeth was with Elizabeth darie SpeegIe. Carie answerinby wall be working If you have a chance g the City Hall main Iine. stop and say hellos PAYROLL Due to the short timesheets work week for the holiday Monday, must be in the payroll office season, Y, December 27. IfBY 2:W on please notify the Payroll oIf y b're on holiday noon Tuesday Y next W the 27th, day extension. edne<sday for a Paychecks will be available in z:40 'Thursday, Dec ember 3d, the Payroll Off -ace after are open on Frida Dan t panic, the banks December 31. i SICK LEAVE POOL st a reminder.... ember 31, 1993 is the last da 'zck Leave pool for Y to contribute hours to 'uable to this year Your fThe Pool of time fellow employe yc,u sometime. If you need a donation form ylvision re may even presentative: , .lust ask Kf'lor_ Community el - own Utilities CommCunity Services & p� Janunity- DevelopmentParks � Recreation Iara"stratiorl Services, Finance & & General Government - Fire &PolIce Services re na ,idi ou ,p e i ha tnity i an atath l.evelo % fro istrict Geori a Ho ounty RAP -A -ROUND 12/17/93 Paee 1 Peace on Earth and Good W*fl To A�� a S. gether ore toys ildren to anukkah. a time for AP- A, -ROUND 12117193 Page 2