Community News
Gillespie Council eyes park improvements
The City of Gillespie will seek an Open Spaces Land Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) grant of up to $600,000 following a unanimous vote by the council Monday night authorizing Mayor John Hicks to sign the application. OSLAD, which is administered by the state Department of Natural Resources, provides matching grants to local governmental units to acquire and/or develop land for outdoor recreation. If the grant application is successful, it would be matched with $600,000 in local funds, resulting in a total project cost of at least $1.2 million.
The action followed a PowerPoint presentation by Austin Burklund of Byrne & Jones Construction, St. Louis, outlining a tentative proposal for improvements to city parks. Byrne & Jones’ proposal includes a $135,000 project to remove and replace playground equipment at Big Brick Park, up to $374,000 to revamp athletic fields at Welfare Park, and $636,400 to install artificial turf on the infields. Possible “add-on” projects include new lighting at Welfare Park at a cost of $640,000, bleachers at a cost of $234,000 and development of a parking area for up to 25 cars at a cost of $99,200. Burklund said his company is still crunching numbers to estimate costs for a three-acre dog park at Welfare and a walking trail around the athletic fields.
Byrne & Jones started in 1976 as an asphalt paving company. In 1997, the company started building all-weather tracks for high schools and universities, which later evolved into developing athletic fields and park facilities. Clients currently include Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, St. Louis University and Washington University. The company was retained to build a new baseball field at Northwestern High School, Palmyra.
Later in the meeting, the council authorized Hicks to apply for the grant on a motion by Ald. Wendy Rolando, seconded by Ald. Dave Link.
In other action, the council discussed rerouted bus traffic for Community Unit School District 7, briefly discussed the status of a proposal to move the Police Department, purchased radio equipment for Gillespie Lake and declared surplus property for sale.
REROUTED BUS TRAFFIC
Mayor Hicks reported to the council that CUSD 7 will reroute bus traffic in order to start classes and dismiss students at the same times every day in all schools. Until this year, the starting and ending times for the elementary school and middle school/high school were staggered to relieve traffic congestion. Hicks said the school asked the Illinois Department of Transportation to install a stop light on Broadway at LJ Avenue but abandoned the idea when the state told the school the project would cost $3 million. CUSD 7 Transportation Director Tim Besserman told the council the school also dismissed the idea of building a road between LJ Avenue and Kelly Street when the cost estimate came back at $6 million.
Hicks told the council the school district now plans to route buses west on Broadway to Kelly Street, south on Kelly to deliver or pick up students at BenGil Elementary School. East on Plum Street for one block, then north on LJ Avenue to deliver and pick up students at the middle school/ high school.
Ald. Landon Pettit said the increased traffic will require the city to tear out and rebuild LJ Avenue. He said the bus traffic will push the current asphalt paving to the shoulder and break up. Making the street a one-way street during the times buses will be using it would encourage buses to straddle the crown and cause even more damage. Pettit also expressed concerns about buses making short turns at the intersection with Broadway, causing the edges of paving material to break off. He suggested a possibility of widening and paving the intersection with concrete to stand up to the increased wear and tear.
Earlier this year, the council approved an ordinance to restrict parking on LJ Avenue.
Besserman told the council some bus drivers tend to clip the intersection when making right turns. To mitigate against that possibility, he said he designed the route to include only left turns, which should be less likely to cause damage. To accommodate simultaneous start and finish times, Besserman said the number of buses has been increased from eight to 10.
Ald. Bill Hayes said the city or school should notify homeowners on Plum Street about increased bus traffic. Some homeowners in the area have already complained about surface damage from heavy traffic, he said.
The council took no action on the issue.
“It’s going to happen Wednesday,” Hicks commented
The council may consider making LJ Avenue, Kelly Street and one block of Plum Street one-way streets from 7-8 a.m. and 3-4 p.m. if it appears such action is necessary.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Ald. Rolando concluded.
In a related matter, the council directed City Attorney Rick Verticchio to write an ordinance to enable the city to erect School Zone signs on Kelly Street from Broadway to Plum. Ald. Dona Rauzi said School Resource Officer Wade Hendricks asked for the signs and Gillespie Police Chief Jared DePoppe concurred.
CAMERAS AND CARS
The council voted unanimously to authorize Chief DePoppe to buy body cameras for Gillespie police officers, contingent upon the Police Department receiving a grant to help offset the cost. DePoppe told the council he can buy 12 cameras for $50,000. He said final approval for the Department’s grant application is pending, though the Department has received Phase I approval. If the grant application is successful, the city will be awarded $34,000 to put toward purchasing the body cams.
A new Illinois law requires all police officers to be equipped with body-cams as of January 1, 2025.
Council members also authorized DePoppe to apply for a USDA grant to cover up to 55 percent of the cost of a new squad car. DePoppe said he secured a price of $52,940 from Morrow Brothers Ford, Greenfield, for a 2025 Interceptor fully equipped for police patrol. Morrow Brothers holds the state contract for vehicles, meaning municipalities can buy from them without bidding.
City Treasurer Dan Fisher said the grant award will be based on the average household income for Gillespie, meaning the city is unlikely to get the maximum 55 percent of the purchase price. “The most we’ll be likely to get will be $15,000 to $17,000,” he said.
Ald. Pettit asked DePoppe if he would consider buying a truck for patrol work, with an eye toward transferring it to Public Works when the vehicle is retired.
“We have three departments that use vehicles,” Pettit noted. “I notice a lot of places that buy a truck for their police and transfer to another department when the police are done with it.”
While no action was taken, Pettit presented information on pricing for a new Street Department dump truck later in the meeting. He said the pricing he secured from Morrow Brothers exceeded $100,000. However, he obtained pricing of $86,000 to $105,000 from other vendors depending upon the size of the truck. All pricing included attachments such as a snow plow and spreader. Purchasing from a vendor other than Morrow Brothers would require advertising for bids.
The issue was referred back to committee and no formal action was taken.
LAKE RADIOS
Alderman voted unanimously to spend more than $2,500 for communication radios at Gillespie Lake. The new radios will ensure radios used by lake personnel are compatible with radios used by the police and emergency services. Council members approved spending $1,019.50 for an office radio, $788 for a truck radio and $743 for a radio to be installed on the lake department’s boat.
POLICE STATION OPTIONS
Upon returning to open session after a 30-minute executive session to discuss personnel, Mayor Hicks announced that the city will postpone or abandon a proposal to convert the Civic Center space formerly used by the Fire Department to offices and facilities for the Gillespie Police Department. Hicks said initial estimates for the project totaled $600,000.
“So we pared things down and rebid, and the rebid was higher than the original,” he said. “I think, as a council, we should delay this until, hopefully, we have another revenue source.”
Ald. Pettit said an option for the city could be purchasing the building that formerly housed Gillespie Chiropractic located directly across the street from the Civic Center. The building which currently houses the Police Department, Pettit said, comprises 1,500 square feet of space. It’s located on a 9,000 square foot lot, leaving only 6,000 square feet for expansion and/or parking.
The building across the street has nearly double the square footage at 2,270 square feet, and is located on a lot comprising nearly 15,000 square feet.
Brick and Welfare parks.
“We’d have room to build on if the need to, we’d have room for parking, or we could build a sally port,” Pettit said. “I think we’d be crazy not to look into that facility.”
SURPLUS PROPERTY
On a motion by Ald. Frank Barrett, the council voted unanimously to approve the Mayor’s recommendation to declare as surplus a vacuum truck, a street sweeper and a dump truck as surplus property and offer them for sale to the highest qualified bidder. Hicks said two of the vehicles are unusable. The street sweeper malfunctioned earlier this summer, causing extensive damage to the city garage.
PUBLIC ART PROPOSAL
The council heard briefly from Ben Marcacci, Benld, about his vision for installing public art along the Benld-Gillespie Bike Trail. Marcacci presented a similar proposal to the Benld City Council last month. He told council members Monday night that he was asking permission to install public art pieces along the Gillespie end of the trail at this time.
“This is something that is in the works,” he said. ‘It’s very early in the process. If we had something up in 2026, I’d be happy.”
Marcacci said he has been in contact with art teachers and welding instructors at Gillespie High School in an effort to involve students in the project. The sculptures would be constructed of quarter-inch steel and concrete to be vandal resistant. Some of the pieces, he said, will commemorate local flora and fauna, coal mining heritage and Route 66. But some pieces would be “art for the sake of art.”
With his own background in construction, Marcacci said he would be responsible for installing the pieces. “I’m always interested in doing something for the community,” he said.
The project would not involve city funds, according to Marcacci. He plans to subsidize the project solely with donations.
Public art is not a unique concept, Marcacci noted. Several communities and organizations have undertaken public art projects in other areas. If the bike trail concept is successful, Marcacci said the city might want to consider expanding it to other public spaces such as Gillespie Lake.
OTHER ACTION
In other action, the council:
- Approved a facade grant of up to $8,000 from Tax Increment Finance Funds to DeeDee’s Designs. The grant will cover one-half of the cost of improving the business’ facade. The grant is a reimbursement grant, meaning the owner must complete the work and then submit documentation of the cost.
- Agreed to place two “Deaf Children Playing” signs on LJ Avenue between Plum Street and Oregon Street.
- Agreed to donate $100 to sponsor a hole during the upcoming Gillespie Fire Department fund-raising golf tournament.
- Ratified the Zoning Board’s decision to approve a variance at 203 East Oak Street, which will allow the resident to produce cookies for sale in her home.
- Accepted a bid of $40 from Jeff Feeley to take down two dead trees on Pine Street.
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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.
