Community News
Kenny Cordum gives information about Local Food Pantry at Rotary
Kenny Cordum expects to serve about 442 families this year.
The Area Rotary met in a regular meeting on Tuesday, December 6th at Toni’s Restaurant in Benld. Kenny Cordum, who runs the local food pantry, gave information about the in and outs of the every day business at the food pantry.
Cordum was a few minutes late to the meeting because the pantry just got a truck of food delivered on the morning of December 6. The truck contained 6,000 pounds of groceries and from the truck load, the pantry was able to serve 42 families from 11:00am to noon.
The Gillespie Caring Center serves local residents and rests behind Shepard’s Closet in downtown Gillespie at 100 South Macoupin. The pantry, which is only about 730 square feet, operates by volunteers and does not pay any labor expenses whatsoever.
A few months prior, the pantry eyed purchasing the Knights of Columbus building in East Gillespie. “But after it got full of mold, we did not do it,” Cordum expressed, “I would like to build a new building to accommodate all of our needs.”
The pantry gets their money from donations, food drives, and government commodities. The pantry has never turned anyone down since the food they receive is free. Most of their guidelines are set by the government.
“We have people that donate every month and some that donate just around the holidays,” Cordum said of the donators, “We always get by, but we can always use more.”
Cordum went on to say that if you want to donate, money is the best thing for the Caring Center because he can purchase more food with the donation than anyone would be able to buy at Walmart, Randy’s Market, or any general store.
The Caring Center expects to receive cans from the food drive that National Honor Society is running presently. Boxes can be found around town at numerous locations including Ageless, Randy’s Market, and Macoupin Family Practice Center.
Cordum goes to Operation Food Search in St. Louis and Illinois Food Banks in Springfield to get their food for the pantry. Since February of this year, Cordum has added an additional stop and once a month he travels to Bloomington to the Midwest Food Bank.
The food is free at both the Operation Food Search and Midwest Food Bank, but the Caring Center has to pay $0.20 per pound of food at Illinois Food Banks. The commodities that are brought to the Caring Center by truck are free and delivery is also free.
12 different drivers drive for the local pantry and stops include stops like Pizza Hut, Dierbergs, and even Schnucks. If a driver has to use their own vehicle, they are reimbursed for their gas. During one year, the pantry travels about 12,000 miles while the average fuel cost for the year varies from $2,400 to $3,400.
The only drawback at the food pantry is they never know what they will get and how much of it and their space is very limited for frozen foods. “Some months it works out and we have a ton of food,” Cordum said, “But sometimes we do not get as much and we have to give out less. It always works out though.”
On Tuesday, the pantry received 31 cases of chicken quarters and 14 cases of whole chickens. “It does not do any good to worry,” Cordum laughed, “Today we had 10 volunteers to help out today and 6 others to help separate the food.”
The Caring Center and Shepard's Closet rests at 100 South Macoupin in downtown Gillespie.
All the sales made at the Shepard’s Closet are used by the pantry to cover heating and food purchases. Sales from 2010 were $12,247 and through October of this year, Shepard’s Closet has profited $13,170.
In the month of December, everyone is given ham. $2,500 has been spent at Randy’s Market to purchase the hams and according to Cordum, this is one of the first years they have used a local business.
In 2004, the pantry served 1,940 families and the pantry expects to serve 4,400 during this year of 2011. The business is good and “if it was a private business, we would be doing fantastic.”
Last year, the pantry handed out $212,000 of food and this year the pantry forecasts about $230,000 to be given out. The pantry purchased $19,751 last year and so far to this date, the pantry has spent $21,834 for food and there will be more money spent by the end of the year.
The pantry expects to average 442 families this year as they are only open 3 hours twice a week.
The pantry serves about 90 families per week which breaks down to 2 families per minute. The most the pantry has served this year was 86 families in one day. On the day of the handouts, lines start forming at about 8:00am.
The pantry has received over $47,733 from the commodities which are delivered from the Food Bank in Springfield. “Next year, the commodities will be cut greatly due to the government,” Cordum noted.
Qualification at the Caring Center is based on income and members of the family. The base starts at $1,180 and with each additional family member, add $414. So, a family of 1 cannot make more than $1,180, a family of 2 cannot make more than $1,594, a family of 3 cannot make more than $2,008, and so forth.
The pantry has never turned anyone down and all applicants must fill out an application. To fill out an application, go to Shepard’s Closet and one of the volunteers will help sign you up and fill out all of the required paperwork or direct you to a pantry that is closer to your residence.
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Dana Carr Skinner, 52, of Gillespie has announced her candidacy for Macoupin County Circuit Clerk. She will be on the November 5, 2024, General Election ballot.
Dana, a lifelong Macoupin County resident was born and raised in Wilsonville by her
parents, Barb and Van Baker. She graduated Gillespie High School in 1990 and attended SIUE
before starting her family. She has raised eight children all of whom graduated college or attended trade school. Dana is married to Todd Skinner.
Dana is currently a public servant, serving the people of Illinois as a paralegal. She has
over 25 years legal experience with 15 of those years being directly in the courtroom. She has
worked in law firms that practiced in all areas of the law from probate, family, civil, traffic,
criminal and real estate. After working several years in the legal field, Dana went back to college and obtained a paralegal degree.
Dana is running for Circuit Clerk because, “It is time for me give back to my community
and the residents of Macoupin County. Lee Byots Ross has done an amazing job as our current Circuit Clerk and I want to continue the work that she has accomplished. My adult life has been focused on my family and my children, and they are now grown. My focus now, would be to demonstrate to the residents of Macoupin County that I can and will do an excellent job as
Circuit Clerk,” Dana said.
The Circuit Clerk is responsible for establishing, maintaining and keeping all records of
the court, as well as several administrative, financial and public services.
“There are employees in the office now that have worked there a number of years, and I will be committed to them and their opinions, as well as the people the Macoupin County. I will learn from the current employees if I am elected in November and I believe that I have the experience, the knowledge and the work ethic that would make me an asset to the Circuit Clerks Office’s team,” Dana said.
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United Mineworkers of America President Cecil Roberts will commemorate the 125th anniversary of Union Miners’ Cemetery in Mt. Olive on October 13. Ceremonies begin at noon with a short historical parade, Roberts, IL AFL-CIO President Tim Drea, and frequent labor music.
Afterward, a meal will be provided as the labor music continues. The event is free and open to the public. A portable chair is recommended.
The cemetery is located on near 5536 Mt. Olive Road in Mt. Olive and can be found by following North Lake Street.
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Background of Union Miners Cemetery by the Mother Jones Museum:
The Union Miners Cemetery is in Mt. Olive, a small mining-town that was once the center of a rebellious group of miners who helped to secure Illinois as the solid rock for the United Mine Workers Union. Today thousands of visitors come each year to pay their respects to the memory to Mother Jones and the spirit that guided her and the founders of the labor movement in the United States. They reflect about the connections between the past and the present.
The cemetery was established in 1899, when commemorations of the miners killed in the 1898 “Virden riot” became controversial in the Mt. Olive cemetery where they were originally buried.
The bodies of the Virden “martyrs” were re-interred in a cemetery established as the Union Miners Cemetery by the Mt. Olive United Mine Workers local. Commemorations of these events in the following years contributed to a generation of activism in the Illinois coal fields.
They did this by claiming the kind of memorial space that was denied in other places, such as Haymarket, where police often disrupted commemorations. This built a sense of connection between past and present in the area, and made it clear that ordinary workers had changed the course of history. The role of the ordinary worker came into focus. Mt. Olive was one of the few places in the country where labor history was taught before the 1970s.
This is a unique place in the history of the labor movement; it was the only union-owned cemetery in the country. This is a place with a monument to Mother Jones, but it also evokes the power and potential of the labor movement. It is a place of reflection and remembering, of thinking of the labor movement’s roots. It is a shrine not only to Jones but to the sacrifices that connected human rights and labor rights, a place where people wonder when and why labor lost power.
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When I decided to write this article, my original intent was to find out when they removed the rails down the middle of Macoupin Street, but I thought I might research when the railroads came and went in Gillespie. So here is a brief history!
In the 1850’s, railroads were becoming more important to the US for both transportation of people and goods. Chicago was the hub of railroad traffic in the west and cities throughout Illinois were vying to have railroads come through their section of the state. Having a railroad meant prosperity and growth. Towns would grow with increased population. The key question was where are the railroads going to go? Influence by key political people throughout the state was important.
Prominent people in the US and central Illinois like Judge Joseph Gillespie, William Mattoon, Electus B Litchfield and Robert Rantoul (Massachusetts senator) and others help bring the railroad south.
The move south was brought about by the chartering of the Terre-Haute & Alton Railroad in January 1851 out of Mattoon, Illinois. It was to extend south to Alton because legislators wanted Alton to compete with St. Louis in the growth of the area. The work was started in 1852 to originally go 172 miles. It was completed in March 1856. Extensions were created from Alton to Belleville and eventually to St. Louis. By 1857 the route was completed and a railroad went through Gillespie. The St. Louis connection was helped by the building of the Eads Bridge in 1874.
In June 1867, the Terre-Haute Alton Railroad was leased to the Indianapolis & St Louis Railroad but went into foreclosure in 1882 and sold to the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (known as the Big Four). This railroad came under control of Vanderbilt and the NY Central Railroad system.
The Terre-Haute Alton Railroad/Big Four Railroad came to Gillespie on an east west route. It passed through Gillespie today in the land next to the Civic Center, crossing Macoupin Street next to Subway. The Big Four Terminal was just off Macoupin Street where the Civic Center is located. There were additional terminals in Hornsby and Dorchester.
A 2nd railroad will add additional prosperity to Gillespie. The Illinois Traction System was a brainchild of William B. McKinley (not the president). He had a vision to create an electric railroad empire that covered at its peak 550 miles of rail.
The Traction system started in connecting Danville and Champaign in 1901-02, then to Decatur to Springfield in 1904. He also completed the route from Springfield to Granite City going through Gillespie and Benld in 1904. This Interurban as most people called it was a passenger service. It would eventually connect to Peoria by 1907 and St Louis by 1910. It was also possible to go to Chicago by connecting with other railroads. The Illinois Traction Terminal was on the corner of Macoupin and Spruce Streets where United Community Bank is located and at one time did have a small spur to the east.
Everyone associates the growth of Gillespie-Benld and the surrounding area to the coal mines, but the railroad also played a key part in the growth of the area.
You might wonder why main street is so wide compared to other towns’ business districts? Gillespie was unique by having the Interurban rail down the center of Macoupin Street but also the Big Four crisscrossed near Walnut Street. The town has to be one of the few towns in Illinois to have that unique situation.
In the early days, the crisscross intersection was controlled by only railroad signs. The “Stop, Look and Listen” slogan did not stop accidents at the crossing. Eventually, a crossing watchman was hired to control the car and pedestrian traffic at the intersection of the two railroad lines. It was also not unusual for a parked car to back into the Interurban in the business district.
These two railroads went north-south and east-west throughout town until the Interurban ceased to operate. The last Interurban use was on March 3, 1956. The rail line was eventually taken over by other railroads and would only be used for freight transportation, especially by Norfolk Western and other railroad lines. The rail line did have a brief arrangement to transport coal from Monterrey Coal Junction to Edwardsville in 1970, but the last use of the old Interurban Line for freight use occurred on August 20, 1970.
The eventual decline of the railroads in Gillespie coincides with the decline of the coal mines. Railroads were being transformed from coal to diesel and coal use immediately declined.
The Big Four stopped operating on December 17, 1964. Slowly they started to remove the tracks between Litchfield and Bethalto. Illinois maps show Big Four railroad tracks in 1965, but they are gone by 1967.
Now to the original premise of the article, when were the railroad tracks removed down the middle of Macoupin Street? My sources throughout town were varying, I got all kinds of guesses. I narrowed it down by my own memory. It was there in 1972 when I started teaching but then all of a sudden it was gone. I searched newspapers in the fall of 1972, then 1973 and I found it in 1974.
In January of 1974, the city decided to do something about the water lines in the business district. There was a conversation in late February to remove the tracks, but when will they do it? At the same time there was discussion about the sewer lines where the tracks are located. So, the city decided to it all at the same time, remove the tracks, and do water and sewer lines. By early April 1974, the tracks are gone and by early May, the downtown was a mess because of the water main project. After the downtown removal of tracks, the city eventually moved further north and south on Macoupin to remove the remaining tracks.
So, what proved to be a simple search gave you, the readers, a history of the railroads in Gillespie. Stop by the library and see the assorted railroad pictures and if you have anything railroad-related or an interesting picture involving the railroad such as an accident involving the railroads. I would like to see them.
