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Indians take regional championship

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Advance to Sectionals in Vandalia on Wednesday, February 8

Heading into the class 3A regional in Auburn, the eighth grade Indians were 19-2 on the season. The group had already took first place in the Staunton 8th Grade Tournament and first place in the  2M conference after beating Southwestern during their last regularly scheduled game in the season. The next jump was regionals and after getting the first place seed, the boys were ‘pumped’ as they made the bus ride three different nights last week.

Eli Fox lays it in the basket in the teams victory over Staunton.

Hosted by Auburn in Divernon Middle School, the gym was well lit with bleachers on both sides of the court. Being unfamiliar to the place, the boys had no trouble making it their home court by Thursday evening. The Indians played their first game on January 28 against last place seeded East Alton. Facing no difficulties at all, the boys quickly wrapped the game up in nearly 40 minutes and defeated Alton 36-7.

With one game down, there was still one game left to win before Gillespie got a bench in the championship game. The boys had to play Staunton next on January 31 after Staunton beat Auburn 44-30. With both teams 1-0 in the regional, it was a battle to see who faced off against Litchfield in the championship. The game was tight throughout the first half, but the Indians broke away in the second half and took the game 37-28. With the win, the Indians were fighting for the championship plaque last Thursday evening against Litchfield.

Already beating them twice in the regular season, the boys had to do it once more to battle in sectional play. It was a slow first quarter as both teams played a tight defense and Gillespie missed numerous shots inside the paint area. Cooper Sharf from Litchfield opened the game with a field goal, but Litchfield could not score on the Gillespie defense until 30 seconds left of play in the quarter. Scoring just two field goals, the Panthers could only manage to get 4 points in the first quarter. Being on offense for much of the first quarter, the scoreboard did not reflect it as the team could only combine for 6 points. Evan Price led the team with 5 of the 6 while Eli Fox chipped in on a free throw.

With an early two point lead, the Indians came out firing in the second quarter. The Panthers played a tough zone defense against the Indians and they finally found a few holes midway through the quarter. Both Fox and Price led the team on the offensive end again as the pair scored 4 points and 6 points respectively. Colin Tieman and Kirkland Davis gathered the assists as they attempted to feed Blake Hayes in the middle of the lane. Hayes found the bottom of the net for 4 points in the quarter as he finally got in his groove as the quarter neared end. As the trio combined for 14 points and scored twice as many points as they did in the first quarter, the defense followed suit.


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Evan Price was the leading scorer in the championship game with 17 points.

Holding the Panthers to just 4 points in the first quarter, the boys broke down a little in the second quarter and let a few easy lay-ups fall through the net. The boys returned to their man-to-man defense and only gave up 11 points in the quarter. Although, nine of the eleven points were to one player: Cooper Sharf. Sharf dribbled circles around the Indian defense at times and got three points from the free throw line just from petty fouls. Holding the rest of the team to just two points, the Indians had a 5 point lead at halftime: 20-15.

With such a small lead, the boys remained under control and tried to keep their confidence level at a minimum throughout the second half. Eli Fox led the team in the third quarter as he scored 6 of the 8 points while Colin Tieman pitched in the remaining two points with his jumpshot field goal. Scoring just 8 points, the Indians still outscored the Panthers by one point as the Litchfield squad could only score 7. Trailing now by 6, 28-22, the Panthers had a large deficit to make up in the fourth quarter.

Easier said than done as the Indians played their best quarter of the night. The defensive performance in the final quarter was what pushed the boys over the top. Holding the Panthers to just 7 points again, the boys had no trouble holding the lead until the end of the game. The Indians went on to score 12 points in the final quarter as free throws favored the team towards the end of the quarter. Evan Price carried the team with half of the points while Eli Fox pitched in with 4 and Blake Hayes with 2. Combining for 12 points, the eighth grade team defeated Litchfield 40-29 and took home the regional plaque.

Leading scorers for the championship game were: Evan Price with 17 points followed by Eli Fox with 13. Blake Hayes pitched in 8 while Colin Tieman tacked on 2 points.

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The boys advance to Sectional 8 hosted by Vandalia. The Indians will face off against Blue Mound Maridian. Blue Mound was seeded second in their regional and won the championship by just a minimal 2 points over Decatur Johns Hill after defeating Vandalia 44-24 in the opening round and Pana Junior High School 31-20 in the semi-finals.

Where now? Blue Mound Maridian and the Indians will play Wednesday, February 8 at 6:00pm at Vandalia Junior High School. The address is: 1011 West Fletcher Street, Vandalia.

 

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Gillespie man injured in DUI accident

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Genisio's Ford Mustang in the City of Gillespie's impound lot Tuesday morning.

A Gillespie man was taken to a local hospital after suffering injuries following a single-vehicle accident that occurred Sunday morning, October 11, after he drove off the roadway and into a deep ditch near the intersection of Route 16 and Charles Street in Gillespie.

Gillespie Police Chief Jared DePoppe reported that the police department was dispatched to the scene of the accident shortly before 3 a.m. Officers arrived to find Jonathan Genisio, 29, of Gillespie as the driver and only occupant inside the Ford Mustang vehicle.

Genisio was arrested, but give a notice to appear in court so he could seek medical treatment. He was charged with six different counts in addition to having his vehicle impounded. His charges include driving under the influence of alcohol, no insurance, improper lane usage, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, failure to notify SOS of an address change and failure to wear a seat belt.

At the time of publication on Thursday evening, the vehicle was recovered from impound and Genisio was discharged from the hospital. The extent of his injuries was unable to be released by medical personnel.

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Community News

Gillespie council discusses budget and meeting process

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Treasurer Dan Fisher addresses the council.

Treasurer Dan Fisher (right) addresses the council.

The treasurer for the City of Gillespie had a lot to say about how city officials handle their subcommittees and how city funds are spent during the city’s committee meeting held Monday evening, July 27.

Dan Fisher, the elected treasurer for Gillespie, spoke to the council for over 30 minutes about how bills are paid and more importantly, how purchases are appropriated for and planned. During the city’s board meeting held earlier this month, Fisher suggested the council move their meeting dates to coincide with how the bills are paid.

He explained that many council members bring up issues or have questions about certain bills during the council meetings, but the questions are left to be answered by the city clerk who isn’t present at the board meetings. In addition to dragging out the meetings, Fisher said the questions should be taken care of before the meeting is held.

“We need to have a standardized process on how we buy things,” Fisher told the council Monday evening. “We need to spend more time on appropriating.”

We need to have a standardized process on how we buy things

Fisher distributed a “Budget Basics” packet to board members during the committee meeting held Monday and said the council should consider implementing a purchase order system to account for all purchases. “That way when the bills come in, we can match the form up with it and everyone knows what the purchase was for and what account it comes out of,” he clarified.

Council members agreed with what Fisher had to say to them. “We need to spend a lot of time when do our appropriation and it’s going to take a lot of time from everyone, including myself,” he continued. “We need to find a way to be collective in how we do things.”

Fisher closed by adding that the council also takes too long at their regular city council meetings, which are held on the second Monday of each month. Speaking of the city’s July meeting that lasted nearly 3 hours, Fisher said the council needs to be much more “business-like”.

“We take too long at our meetings,” he closed. “It’s been proven that people lose focus after 90 minutes and there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get a meeting done in 1 hour and 15 minutes.”

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City clerk Frances Smith spoke up after Fisher referred to the council’s last meeting. She prefaced her statement by saying she didn’t intend to saying anything, but continued by saying that the council’s July 13th meeting took her three days to transcribe. “It makes the clerk’s job hard – whoever it is,” she said. “There is a lot of side conversations and it’s very hard to hear on the tape.”

Ash Street Project

Alderman Steve Kluthe informed the board that he received the bid specifications back for the Ash Street Project which allows the council to advertise the specs to get an idea how much drainage project will cost.

Kluthe said the bid specifications cover everything including equal opportunity employer and prevailing wage information, but said the project could probably be handled by a local contractor. The project includes installing a culvert that will transfer the water to Cherry Street.

The council hopes the completed project will then alleviate the water that currently gets backed up north of Ash Street. “They are going to put a culvert underneath Ash Street to the north and grade the ground on the north side so the water flows to the culvert and down to the south end where there is a storm drain,” Kluthe explained.

TIF District

We should stretch the money out and begin to reinvest the money into community development

Fisher informed the council that the tax bills for the TIF district went out and the city can expect to receive close to $60,000. He reminded the council that even though the city made a big payment to United Community Bank last year in excess of $90,000, there will still be a payment made to UCB for their portion paid into the TIF until the TIF expires, which Fisher said is 12-14 more years.

After the city pays UCB, Fisher said the council can expect to still have somewhere north of $40,000 remaining each year. “I would like us to start to look at other projects that meet the TIF criteria that we could spend $20-$30,000 per year,” Fisher explained. “Long-range projects – projects that could last 10-12 years. We should stretch the money out and begin to reinvest the money into community development.”

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Elementary School News

Elementary school releases supply lists for fall

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School Supply 2

Kindergarten

  • 5 boxes CRAYOLA brand crayons (24 count)
  • 1 box CRAYOLA brand broad-line markers (classic)
  • 1 backpack
  • 1 box of water paints
  • 1 pair FISKAR brand scissors (children’s)
  • 6 large glue sticks
  • 1 small plastic school box
  • 4 pocket folders
  • 4 large erasers
  • 20 pencils (#2, lead, plain yellow)
  • 2 boxes of Kleenex
  • 2 rolls of paper towels
  • 2 containers of anti-bacterial wipes
  • 1 large box of sandwich size ZIPLOC bags (girls)
  • 1 large box of gallon ZIPLOC bags (boys)
  • 1 clipboard
  • 1 highlighter
  • 1 spiral 1-subject notebook (wide ruled)
  • Extra set of clothes to keep at school
  • Tennis shoes for P.E.

First Grade

  • 1 plastic school box
  • 3 packs of pencil top erasers
  • 2 large pink erasers
  • 5 packs of Ticonderoga brand pencils
  • 2 yellow highlighters
  • 2 boxes of CRAYOLA crayons (24 count)
  • 12 Elmer’s brand glue sticks
  • 1 pair of FISKAR brand scissors
  • 1 spiral 1-subject notebook (wide ruled)
  • 2 plastic 2-pocket folders
  • 1 8ct classic CRAYOLA fine line markers
  • 2 dry erase markers
  • 1 roll of paper towels
  • 2 boxes of Kleenex
  • 3 containers of Clorox Anti-Bacterial Wipes
  • 1 box of sandwich size ZIPLOC bags (girls)
  • 1 box of gallon ZIPLOC bags (boys)
  • Tennis shoes for P.E.
  • Extra set of clothes to keep at school

Second Grade

  • Handheld pencil sharpener
  • 8 large Elmer’s glue sticks
  • 1 large zippered pencil bag
  • 24 – #2 pencils
  • 1 wide ruled spiral notebook
  • 1 package wide ruled loose leaf paper
  • (2) 1” three ring binder
  • 1 pack of pencil top erasers
  • 1 pair of FISKARS brand pointed scissors
  • 1 yellow highlighter
  • 1 box broad line classic CRAYOLA markers
  • 2 boxes CRAYOLA crayons (24 count)
  • 2 plastic pocket folders
  • 1 CRAYOLA watercolor paints
  • 1 box of Kleenex
  • 1 roll of paper towels
  • Large Ziploc bags
  • Sandwich size Ziploc bags
  • 2 containers of Clorox wipes
  • 1 box of CRAYOLA colored pencils
  • 2 dry erase markers
  • Extra set of clothes to leave at school
  • Tennis shoes for P.E.

Third Grade

  • 1 small school box
  • 4 packages of pencils (#2, plain yellow)
  • 2 boxes CRAYOLA crayons (24 count)
  • 1 box CRAYOLA colored pencils
  • 1 highlighter
  • 1 pair pointed scissors
  • 6 ELMER glue sticks
  • 2 pocket folders
  • 3 boxes Kleenex
  • 2 containers of CLOROX wipes
  • 1 roll of paper towels
  • 1 package of loose leaf paper (wide rule)
  • 2 notebooks (wide rule)
  • (2) 1” binders
  • 2 packs of pencil top erasers
  • Gallon-sized Ziploc bags (boys)
  • Sandwich-sized Ziploc bags (girls)
  • 2 packages of post-it notes
  • Tennis shoes for P.E.

Fourth Grade

  • 2 packages of wide rule loose leaf paper
  • 48 pencils
  • 3 packs pencil top erasers
  • (1) 2” binder
  • 1 box 24 or 48 count CRAYOLA crayons
  • 1 pair FISKAR scissors
  • 1 box of colored pencils
  • 1 single subject notebook (wide rule)
  • 3 folders
  • 2 packages of white index cards
  • 4 highlighters
  • 4 packages of post-it notes
  • 2 boxes Kleenex
  • 1 container of Clorox wipes
  • Hand held Pencil Sharpener
  • Dividing tabs for binder
  • Tennis shoes for P.E.

Fifth Grade

  • Art Box
  • Pencil Pouch
  • 36 pencils (mechanical preferred)
  • 12 pencil top erasers
  • Crayola crayons
  • Markers
  • Crayola Colored Pencils
  • Red or Blue Pen
  • Scissors
  • Clear Ruler
  • Clear Protractor
  • 1 Bottle of Elmer’s Glue or 2 Glue Sticks
  • (1) 3 Ring Binder (2 inch)
  • 2 notebooks (one subject-wide ruled)
  • 1 package of loose leaf paper (wide ruled)
  • 3 folders
  • 2 highlighters
  • 2 boxes Kleenex
  • Girls-Antibacterial Wipes
  • Boys-4 pack of post it notes
  • Hand Held Pencil Sharpener
  • Pocket Dictionary
  • Tennis shoes for P.E.

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