Community News
Gerald Brand introduces HEIDI to Rotary
Gerald Brand explains who HEIDI helps and what the mission statement says.
The Area Rotary met in a regular meeting on Tuesday, January 3rd at Toni’s Restaurant in Benld. Gerald Brand, the founder of HEIDI along with his wife, gave information about what exactly HEIDI does along with how and why it was started.
Gerald Brand and his wife Sandy, who are the co-CEO’s of HEIDI, were both born and raised in Gillespie. Brand enjoys the small town life as he mentioned HEIDI would not be what it is today with the support from the small town community. “We would not get this kind of support if we tried to start it in any large city,” Brand opened.
First time speaking in public about the foundation, Brand explained that HEIDI was named after his daughter Heidi who was a special needs person. Heidi had a brain tumor removed when she 6 years old and everything that happened from the surgeries from there on out qualified her to be a special needs person. “We went through numerous hardships,” Brand explained, “As I am sure you realize.”
The main hardship faced by the Brand family was getting their daughter an education. The school districts around here are not set up for special needs people, so Heidi’s education was not going to come from Gillespie or even Benld. Heidi was bused to Staunton, Mt. Olive, Bunker Hill, and eventually Bethalto where she graduated from Civic Memorial. The main dilemma faced by Gerald and his wife was, “why a person with special needs that has issues getting from point A to point B has to get up earlier than all of the other kids, ride on a bus to get there and then ride on a bus on the way home and get home an hour later than all the other kids.”
After graduating high school, Heidi went on to live by herself. Being the hardest decision Gerald has ever had to make, he decided to let her go and live her last 10 years in Springfield at Near North Village. Living in the area for 10 years, Heidi could never land a job. According to Gerald, she took resumes with her everywhere she went, but no one would hire her. Heidi, who could talk and use the right side of her body, was referred to as the “Ann Landers” of the building.
Heidi was always trying to get involved in everything that was going on and was very active in the Citizens Coalition for Disabled Individuals along with a member of Springfield Center for Independent Living. Both organizations tried to improve the lives for disabled people. When Heidi lived away from her parents, the Brands tried to stay in touch as much as they could with their daughter, but they never realized how involved Heidi was until she passed away in May of 2011.
One letter Brand shared with the Rotary was from the Near North Village. There was a fire on the 5th floor at the Village while Heidi was living there. Heidi was living on the 8th floor, but the entire building was evacuated. Lacking an evacuation plan, Heidi went to a meeting and expressed her concern about the lack of evacuation plans. The Brand’s received a letter stating that there is a “mandatory law in the City of Springfield that any building over 2 stories must have an evacuation plan” after the death of their daughter Heidi. The primary reason for this law was because of Heidi Brand.
Being confined to a wheel-chair because of her weight, Heidi relied on Access to be mobile in the City of Springfield. Heidi lacked metabolism due to the countless surgeries she experienced, but had no problem getting around in the wheel-chair. Access is a transportation company designed for disabled people that ran until 6:00pm. Heidi went to the meetings and expressed her concerns about the time cut-off and now, because of Heidi, the buses run until 9:00pm.
During the last couple months of her life, Heidi came home and visited with her parents for weekends at a time. “It was always about what she could do for other people,” Gerald explained, “It was never about what anyone could do for her.” As they were sitting in the living room night as Heidi did her bead work, Gerald started playing around with her name. Questioned by Heidi, Gerald told her there has to be some thing we can do with your name to help other people and get it bigger than we thought we could do. “Being the most selfless person I knew,” Brand finally came up with something for her name.
Heidi in the blue longsleeve shirt visited her parents on the weekends during the last 2 months of her life.
HEIDI, which stands for Helping Every Individual Develop Independence, remains the same as it did then. “Heidi loved it, but it never got off the ground,” Gerald went on to say. The mission statement for HEIDI is “helping special needs people.” As the organization has had to turn away some people, they have to focus on the specials need people that fall through the cracks and “do not have the national support.”
Every one was busy at the time, but after Heidi passed away the Brands decided it was time to lift HEIDI off the ground. Having to start somewhere, the Brands put all the donations from the funeral into a bank account and started calling close friends and explaining his new idea. “Everyone agreed to help, I have not came across one person that has said they do not have enough time,” Gerald noted. HEIDI has a “fabulous group of people involved” which consist of 9 board of directors and 5 trustees. John Ronald is the president while JO Kelly is the vice-president.
HEIDI, which meets on occasion, works entirely upon donations. The first fundraiser was at Dorchester Picnic where the group raised close to $1,000 after 3 days. The second fundraiser was at Fall Festival where the group raised more money than Dorchester in just one day. The third and most recent fundraiser by HEIDI was a dinner, dance, and silent auction where the group raised almost $10,000. At the dinner, HEIDI gave away their first computer to the local special education program where the computer benefits close to 12 children.
Just recently, HEIDI with the help of Ace Hardware in Carlinville donated $700 worth of tools and material to Illinois Valley Rehabilitation Work-shop in Gillespie. The donation occurred after receiving news that the work-shop would not exist without some help of supplies and tools. The workshop, which creates yard decorations for any holiday, received hammers, sanders, drills and countless other items necessary for their daily work.
HEIDI is a lot bigger than what they expected. After experiencing most of their “growing pain”, the group has an attorney and CPA that both are donating their time as they try to set up a 501c3. The nonprofit organization is still looking at incorporating.
“It is unreal how a living room idea has turned into this,” Brand closed, “It just boggles your mind, it is unreal. It all comes down to the small town people who donate time and time again. There is no other place I would rather do this.”
Gerald explained that right now, HEIDI is just CUSD #7 wide and eventually plans to move on to growing into county wide with hopes of reaching state wide and maybe even nation wide at one point in time. Gerald did say HEIDI is growing a lot faster than he had imagined.
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Community News
Gillespie Council establishes penalty of late lake lot lease payments, green lights programs to display banners honoring local veterans
After several minutes of discussion and debate, the Gillespie City Council on Monday night adopted a resolution that enables the city to collect a $100 late fee for lake lot lease payments that come in after the April 1 deadline. Council members also endorsed a privately funded program proposed by two sisters to purchase and display banners on Macoupin Street to recognize individual local military personnel.
Lake lot lease-holders are required to pay their $750 annual lease payment on April 1. Under the new policy, the city will impose a $100 late fee. If the lease remains unpaid after May 31, the city will terminate the lease.
Debate centered on whether or not a new leaseholder would be responsible for the unpaid late fee. City Attorney Rick Verticchio wrote the resolution to attach the fee to the lot rather than the lease-holder, meaning a new owner would have to redeem the late fee to rent the lot. Ald. Janet Odell-Mueller, however, said such a policy would be unfair to the new lease-holder.
Verticchio said he wrote the resolution to prevent families or friends from transferring lots from one to another without paying for the previous year’s lease. He said a person could conceivably default on a year’s lease, transfer the property to a family member or friend who could do the same thing a year later. “This is to prevent ‘sweetheart deals’,” Verticchio said, where a group of friends or family members could retain a lot indefinitely without ever paying for a lease.
Ald. Landon Pettit pointed out, however, that lease-holders are required to pay a deposit equal to a one-year lease. Meaning the city will get the lease payment when the lease-holder forfeits the lease. At that point, Odell-Mueller said, the lease-holder would not be transferring the lease. Instead, the city would have control of the property.
Verticchio said he was not aware of the deposit issue and suggested he could reword a portion of the resolution to indicate that in the event the lease is terminated the deposit would be applied to the balance due and the penalty would be waived. Essentially, the penalty applies only if the delinquent lease-holder chooses to retain the lease by paying the penalty plus the annual lease.
At one point, Mayor John Hicks suggested referring the resolution back to committee to hammer out the final language, Ultimately, however, the council voted unanimously to adopt the resolution with the changes Verticchio suggested.
MILITARY HEROES BANNERS
On a motion by Ald. Wendy Rolando, the council voted unanimously to give permission to Jennifer Carter and her sister, Jodi Carpani, to purchase and place banners honoring local military personnel on Veterans Day. Carter said the women hope to have the banners on Macoupin Street in time for Veterans Day this year.
“We would like the city council’s permission to recognize our community heroes,” Carter said, addressing the council, “and we would like permission to ask the community to join us in honoring them sponsoring a banner.”
Carter said there are 20 brackets currently available on Macoupin Street to mount the banners. The banners are two-sided, meaning the pair could honor up to 40 veterans at the moment. She said the number of banners could be expanded if some of the broken brackets are replaced.
The banners cost $80 each, and the sisters plan to seek the support of community members to pay for them. Carter said they will not profit from the project.
“We will bear the responsibility to organize and solicit our community to sponsor a local veteran with a hometown heroes banner to be hung every year on Veterans Day,” Carter said. “My sister and I will be responsible for hanging and removing the banners each year.”
She said the banners will be similar to those currently displayed in Wilsonville, Edwardsville and Bunker Hill. The project will not interfere with Miners flags that are displayed on Macoupin Street during football season.
“My fear is that we will have more people wanting banners than we have brackets for,” Carter said. She said they will approach the Benld City Council for permission to hang banners in that community if a significant number of people want to honor Benld veterans.
Mayor Hicks noted that there will be more poles available for displaying banners when the city’s Streetscape project is finished.
Last month, Ald. Rolando received the permission of the council to solicit donations to buy new American flags for Macoupin Street. She said she can work with the sisters to see if the banners can be displayed on the same pole with the flags, or possibly have the flags on alternate poles along the Main Street.
WATER BILL POLICY
After a lengthy discussion, Mayor Hicks asked the Public Works Committee to work on establishing a policy for collecting delinquent water bills when a residence is sold to a new owner. The discussion stemmed from concerns voiced by Jack Taylor who recently purchased a vacant home with the intention of renovating it for resale. After closing on the real estate, he learned there was a $200 delinquent water bill he was required to pay before having the water turned on.
“Had he come up to city hall and asked them to check that address, they would have told him about the outstanding bill,” Verticchio said.
Taylor complained that he had a title search completed but the city had not placed a lien against the property. “If someone buys a house, they’re going to do a title search. No one is going to come up here and check the water bill,” he said. “I’m just saying it’s unfair to the buyer.”
Verticchio said filing a lien on a $200 water bill would not be practical. The city would have to pay him for his services plus a $81 filing fee. “At that point you’ve doubled the bill,” he said. “All of sudden, $200 is $400.” Most municipalities, he said, do not file formal liens until the delinquent bill reaches $500.
City Treasurer Dan Fisher said the city cannot waive delinquent water bills because of money the city received from USDA for its water infrastructure project completed two years ago. “We have a loan with the federal government. Under the terms of that loan, we have to collect all bills,” he said. “We have to be able to collect that money to uphold our end of our agreement with the federal government.”
Fisher recommended that the Water Department shut off water service for delinquent customers sooner so excessive bills do not accrue.
Hicks recommended that the Public Works Committee work on a policy regarding delinquent water bills. One possible solution, he said, would be to remove water meters from vacant homes with delinquent bills.
“That way, the buyer would have to call the Water Department to have the water turned on, and they would tell them that there’s a bill against it,” he said.
He told Taylor he would look at the bill and see if there were late fees or interest that could be waived.
STOP SIGNS
The council approved an ordinance to place stop signs at the intersection of LJ Avenue and Oak Street to facilitate rerouted bus traffic resulting from Community Unit School District 7’s decision to convene and dismiss school at the same times for all its buildings.
Ald. Odell-Mueller questioned whether the safety of elementary students crossing the road would be jeopardized by the rerouted buses.
Fisher responded that the school district is working with the city to apply for a safety grant to install sidewalks in the area of BenGil Elementary School to address safety concerns.
OTHER ACTION
In other action, the council:
- Ratified the Mayor’s appointment of Dave Tucker, Kelley Hatlee and Katie Drummond to the Gillespie Public Library Board of Directors.
- Agreed to accept a bid of $15,500 from Cahokia Township for the purchase of a surplus dump truck, and a bid of $5,000 from Kinney Construction for a surplus vacuum truck. No bids were received for a street sweeper that also was declared as surplus property last month.
- Accepted a total bid of $760 from Jim Feeley to remove trees in the 800 block of Frey Street, the 600 block of Adams Street and at Big Brick Park.
- Voted to establish a separate checking account for funds generated from the city’s second Tax Increment Financing district.
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Meeting in special session Monday night, August 26, the Gillespie City Council voted 5-2 to purchase a brick building at 124 N. Macoupin St. to house the growing Gillespie Police Department.
On a motion by Ald. Dona Rauzi, seconded by Ald. Bill Hayes, the council agreed to buy the building, which formerly housed the Gillespie Chiropractic Clinic, for $69,000. Mayor John Hicks said the city expects to spend up to $200,000 to remodel the structure to house the Gillespie Police Department, currently located at 109 W. Pine St. The fate of the 109 W. Pine address was not discussed, nor was a timeline for moving the police department into new quarters.
Ald. Rauzi, Hayes, Wendy Rolando, Bob Fritz and Janet Odell-Mueller voted in favor of the purchase. Ald. Dave Link and Frank Barrett cast dissenting votes. Ald. Landon Pettit, who advocated for the purchase during the council’s regular monthly meeting two weeks ago, was absent.
At 2,270 square feet, the new building will nearly double the square footage available for the Police Department. The building is located on a 15,000-square-foot lot, compared with 9,000 square feet at the current location, meaning there will be ample room for parking and/or to build onto the existing structure.
City Treasurer said the building owner listed the property for $80,000. The city offered $60,000 and settle at $69,000 after further negotiations.
Fisher said modifications to the building will include replacing stairs to the basement with ADA-compliant stairs, which will make the basement accessible for storage and securely holding evidence.
“We’ll probably change the entryway to make it a double-lock entry,” Fisher said. “We’ll have to make some changes but basically the inside won’t change very much.” Current exam rooms can become individual offices with little or no remodeling. The lobby area will probably be divided with a new wall to create a waiting area for visitors.
For the past two years, the council has investigated the possibility of remodeling the space vacated in the Civic Center when the Fire Department moved to new facilities in East Gillespie. Cost estimates for that project, however, came in at $600,000 to $700,000. Buying and remodeling 112 N. Macoupin St. will cost approximately half of what was estimated for the Civic Center alternative.
“We’ve been talking about doing something here for a couple of years,” Ald. Link said. “How many thousands of dollars have we spent on engineering for here?”
Fisher replied that engineering fees for the Civic Center project total about $5,000, but some of the planning for the Civic Center location should translate to the 112 N. Macoupin site.
“We’re thinking we can use some of the plans we had done for here for the new building,” Fisher said. “We hope we can use some of those plans to spec out the other building without making much modification.”
Hicks said a larger facility for the Police Department is needed because the size of the Department has expanded in order to service police protection contracts with surrounding communities including Benld, Eagarville, Mt. Clare, Sawyerville, East Gillespie and Wilsonville.
“We’ve got more people working for us,” Hicks said. “We have more people coming in,” Hicks said the city also wanted to have the Police Department located on the city’s Main Street.
“I still think the dentist office would be a better place to put it,” Ald. Barrett commented, referring to the former location of Smiles Plus Dentistry, 709 Staunton Rd. “The square footage is more and the basement is finished.”
“What you’re talking about is $130,000,” said Ald. Rolando, “plus there’s more parking space with this place.”
Monday night’s special meeting of the council was held immediately prior to a committee meeting during which the committee members directed Fisher to apply for a federal grant to defray the cost of buying two police patrol cars sometime after Oct. 1, and recommended setting 6-8 p.m., Oct. 30 and 31, as trick or treating hours. Committee actions do not become official until approved by the full council.
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The Bunker Hill Area Chamber of Commerce is holding its annual Fall Festival on September 14 in the downtown area beginning at 10 am.
The event will feature vendors, food, beverages, a bounce house, an interactive Illinois Department of Natural Resources booth, music, a car show, a burnout contest, and a fireworks display sponsored by the Bunker Hill United Community Bank Community at 8 PM. City Heat band will perform from 12-4 and Rock Bottom from 6-10.
The Speed Demons host the car show and burn-out contest. The entry fee is $20, and the event runs from 10 to 5, Mark Flieger, the group spokesperson, said. Registration for the car show starts at 8 am. Enter on Highway 159 at Park Street. Car Show Awards will be presented at 4 pm.
The Burnout Contest starts at 5 pm. Cash and Custom-made Trophy for the 1st place winner. Kids Power Wheels Drag Racing from 12 pm – 1 pm and 100 goodie bags to the first 100 cars that enter the 2024 Car Show.
For further information, contact Jill Chapman at 618 223 9043, Lisa Webb at 618 407 2513, or Mark Flieger at 314 210 6254.
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