Welcome to Capitol Notes, a regular, online-only, easy-to-swallow capsule of Harrisburg-related tidbits that didn't make it into newsprint.

THE TIME IS GONE, THE CONTRACT IS OVER. How many wind-up clocks do you have in your house? One? Three? Five, tops? The Capitol has more than 300 antique clocks scattered throughout the building, hanging on walls in offices, meeting rooms and reception suites.

Some of them, the 5-foot-tall pendulum clocks, today have a replacement value of up to $50,000. The smaller mantle clocks have a replacement value of half that.

Most of them are made of mahogany, most of them are at least a century old, and all of them bear on their face the state seal and a keystone-shaped glass etching. Created by the famed E. Howard Clock company, they are wound by hand each Friday.

But by the 1980s, many of the antique clocks had fallen into disrepair. Some of them were tossed in a back room and used for scrap parts when other clocks broke down. So the state's Capitol Preservation Committee, which is responsible for keeping the century-old building in tip-top shape, began a regular clock maintenance regimen, starting in the 1980s and continuing through today.

Which brings us, quite belatedly, to our point. For years, one man has been responsible for caring for all of the clocks. He's a horologist named Quentin Johnson - a horologist is someone who studies clocks and timekeeping - and his contract to oil, repair and otherwise maintain the clocks expired in December.

The preservation committee is now soliciting bids from contractors who want to replace Johnson. (Johnson would also be able to submit a bid). The contract would run from June of this year through June 2010, according to Ruthann Kemper, director of the preservation committee.

MATRIX, UNLOADED. Pennsylvania's branch of the American Civil Liberties Union wants Gov. Ed Rendell to end the Pennsylvania State Police bureau's participation in the controversial Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, also known as the MATRIX system, after Michigan decided to do the same this week.

Privacy-rights and civil liberties groups say the federally funded MATRIX data-collecting system allows law enforcement officers to collect and share personal information, from both convicted and criminals and law-abiding citizens, that ought to be kept private - information about a person's property holdings, vehicles, boats, Internet domains, even utility connections.

In Michigan, the ACLU sued, trying to force the state to drop out. Michigan withdrew not because of the ACLU, but because not enough states were participating in the pilot project, and as a result, the project wasn't worthwhile. Originally, 13 states were included in the project, but now only four are sharing information - Connecticut, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.

"Pennsylvania should follow the lead of our sister states who have stepped up to really protect their citizens' privacy," said Larry Frankel, the ACLU's legislative director.

PICK A PRIORITY, ANY PRIORITY. Pittsburgh's Jack Wagner, Pennsylvania's new auditor general, said this week that his top priorities for his four-year term are "public safety, health care, job retention and job growth."

"Improving the performance of government, so that it improves the quality of life for all Pennsylvanians, is our mission," Wagner said. "It is an important responsibility, and it is one that I am proud to shoulder.''

He made the comments during a budget hearing.

THE PAVEMENT MAY BE CRUMBLING, BUT ... At least the ride is still free.

Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler had good news this week for motorists who use Interstate-80, the 311-mile-long, east-west highway that crosses the state from Ohio to New Jersey.

After a lengthy study, Biehler told a Senate committee, PennDOT has decided not to place tolls on the highway, which has always been free since it opened in the late 1960s.

Some thought had been given to placing a $2.50 toll every 30 or so miles, with 10 toll booths on the total highway, so it would have cost a motorist $25 to drive all the way across the state. Truckers would have paid $7.50 every 30 miles, or $75 for a complete trip.

But there were significant start-up costs to the tolling project, Biehler said - as much as $700 million for adding the toll plazas, building ramps off the highway, and adding highway maintenance buildings and state police barracks in various locations.

The highway probably would have had to be widened in its eastern section between I-81 and New Jersey, which is more heavily traveled than the rural, sparsely populated western section of the road. The existing roadway also would need some upgrades because the pavement from the 1960s and '70s hasn't lasted too well, which would have added to the maintenance costs, he said.

Even though interstate highways built with federal funds can't normally be turned into state toll roads, the federal government is willing to allow three such pilot toll-road projects. I-80 could have become one of them, but it now won't, Biehler said.

ANOTHER TRANSIT RALLY. Gov. Rendell transferred hundreds of millions in federal highway money to bail out the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia transit systems for the next two years, but that doesn't mean all of the state's transit problems are solved.

Several hundred people gathered in the Capitol earlier this week for a rally supporting the "Persons with Disabilities Rural Transportation Program." In 24 Pennsylvania counties, the 4-year old program provides bus trips for people with disabilities at a discounted rate, basically 15 percent of the base fare for the local transit agency.

But the people rallying Tuesday want more state money to be dedicated to the program, so that people living in rural areas of the 41 remaining counties can also have regular access to the transit discount program.

THE ODDS ARE STACKED. State Sen. Mike Stack, D-Philadelphia, owns a 4 percent stake in a company that, in turn, owns some riverfront property along the Delaware River.

Doesn't seem like a big deal, until you consider two things - first, the 22-acre property was purchased through the Department of General Services at a discounted price, and second, the property itself is might someday become home to a casino.

Republicans say the whole thing sounds fishy. "While Sen. Stack clearly did not divulge his financial interest in this land during the vote in the Senate, the astronomical discount given by Gov. Rendell's deputies at General Services creates a lot of questions," said Eileen Melvin, Republican State Committee Chairman.

Stack, according to the Associated Press, said he has no immediate plans to divest his holding. Stack abstained from the Senate vote that allowed the sale of the property to his business associates.

EXECUTION WARRANT. Gov. Ed. Rendell this week signed a warrant for the execution of Raymond Johnson, of Berks County.

Johnson's execution is scheduled for May 5, but most executions in Pennsylvania are stayed by a judge or postponed on appeal.

Johnson was convicted of killing Louis Combs, a rival drug dealer, according to a press release from the governor's office. Johnson, a 37-year-old inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Greene, was sentenced to death in 2000.

Governor Rendell has now signed 34 death warrants. None of the convicts has been put to death. The last Pennsylvanian to die by lethal injection at the state's hands was Gary Heidnik, who was put to death in 1999.

SUPER TROOPERS. Republican legislators, including Sen. James Rhoades of Schuylkill County and Rep. Ron Marsico of Dauphin County, are strongly pushing Gov. Ed Rendell to add 90 additional state troopers in each of the next three years, because the state's police complement is doing more and more work each year.

Troopers are taking on many new duties, including apprehending makers of the illegal drug "meth," stopping illegal drugs coming from New York City and doing background checks on would-be operators of the new slots casinos coming to the state.

That, added to traditional work such as stopping speeders on highways and patrolling many smaller towns in the state, means the Pennsylvania State Police bureau needs the additional manpower, the Republican lawmakers said.

Currently, about 4,340 trooper positions are authorized, but there are 165 vacancies, Col. Jeffrey Miller, state police commander, told the Senate Appropriations Committee this week. However, a new class of 100 cadets will graduate in May, with another 55 cadets starting the police academy then.

Miller and Rendell said the 90 new trooper slots are unnecessary, because the bureau intends to convert up to 70 jobs now held by limited-duty state troopers into civilian-held positions, which would put more uniformed personnel on the road.

Rendell said he doesn't think the state can afford to spend up to $30 million for 270 more troopers and 100 more police cars.

HOUSE RESOLUTION OF THE WEEK. Several House members think March 6-12 should be known as "Fanny Jackson Coppin Week" in Pennsylvania. In 1865, Coppin earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in Ohio, making her one of the first black women to earn a degree from an American college. Coppin State University in Baltimore is now named after her.

SENATE RESOLUTION OF THE WEEK. March is "Junior Achievement Month" in Pennsylvania.

( Compiled from staff reports, press releases, and reports from Capitolwire.com and the Associated Press. If you have an item for the Capitol Notes column, send it to btoland@post-gazette.com or tbarnes@post-gazette.com. )