Community News
Hyde assures Board New School will be complete in Feb. 2013
8th period is a great success
Tom Hyde presents the new school exterior materials to the school board.
Tom Hyde updated the school board on current capital projects on Monday evening’s board meeting that took place on April 23. Hyde introduced an updated schedule and an overall planning schedule. The planning schedule dated from 2009 when the site selection committee was established to 2012, where we are today.
The construction schedule is set to be complete in February of 2013. “There is a lot to go yet, but that is kind of what we are looking at,” Hyde explained. He went on to say the biggest issue that set the project back was the mine grouting. According to Hyde, they planned for three months and it took five months.
Korte & Luitjohan started April 1 and has most of the foundation complete and will start on the south end of the building shortly. Their work is scheduled to be complete toward the end of May. Steel should be brought it in the beginning of next week. Contegra has also started on the underground plumbing.
Hyde then went on to explain the color scheme to the board. The outside of the school will be “Gillespie Brick” along with 3 feet of pre-cast material which will look like lime-stone. “It doesn’t look like lime-stone up close, but it will from a distance,” Hyde assured. The exterior roof will be beige along with the accent material of the windows. “It will go best with the brick.”
“We are looking at a 39% energy efficient savings over the requirements for today,” Hyde noted, “The number still does not reflect wind power and natural day light.” Hyde went on to ask the school board to approve a $53,107 change order on the installation for underground utilities. The underground wiring would run from the Methodist Church down Kelly Street into the transformer outside of the school. To eliminate all above ground powering from the church down to Oak Street would basically hide all the wiring on the entire property. The figure also includes 5 street lights down Kelly Street.
Jennifer Brown, RTR director, explains that the 8th period is a great success.
Superintendent Paul Skeans urged the board to approve the $53,107 change order to “beautify” the property. “I want the school to look as beautiful as possible and I think we could do this by hiding all the wiring,” Skeans added. Board members frowned upon why these figures were not included in the original bid while Hyde explained that Ameren was not available at that time to get their bid. The school board later went on to object the change order and keep the wiring above ground for no additional cost.
Mrs. Jennifer Brown, RTR director, gave the school board an update on eighth period. Brown reiterated that the program is only for first and second semester senior and juniors whose grade point average was above 3.0 along with second semester sophomore who were above 3.0. “I think the program is great,” Brown explained, “We moved some kids out of the program. I think it is a great success!”
Targeted students receive interventions at least twice per week or four intensive days if they are need of both math and reading. Other students can use their time in eighth hour with their teachers using a pass system, so they could get the one-on-one time with their teachers. 30% of the students in the program were able to filter out of tier two small group instruction for eighth hour and 75% of students overall have showed marked improvement.
Under certificated personnel, the Board of Education hired Jennifer Brown for summer school 2012 consumer education and driver’s education and hired Rob Macias for summer school 2012 drivers’ education. They also approved posting for 2 Elementary School teaching positions for FSY 2013.
For non-certificated, the Board of Education hired Denise Graham for the Unit Office Staff position and posted a summer food service position. The board also accepted resignation of high school scholar bowl coach, Matt Brawner effective at the end of the FSY 2012. The board went on to approve to post for a high school scholar bowl coach position for FSY 2013.
After requesting bids on three school buses, the board approved sales of the surplus property. The board of education accepted the bid of $2,051.25 from John Van Doren for bus #8, a 1996 International Thomas 65 passenger school bus. They also accepted the bid of $3,015.00 for bus #9, 2001 Freightliner Thomas 65 passenger school bus, and $1,420.00 for bus #17, 1993 International Thomas 71 passenger school bus, from Ponder Equipment & Company.
School administrators then updated the board on current activity in each building. Mr. Tiburzi, high school principal, told the board that mid-term report cards were distributed on April 19th. He also congratulated Dallas DeMartini on his first place WYSE state physics competition and congratulated Abigail Harszy as she was a state winner in Environmental Science and Natural resources Management competition.
Tiburzi went on to extend congratulations to Zach Logan for runner-up in Diversified Horticulture competition and to the Ag Mechanics Team who received first place in sectional competition. Members included Zach Logan (First Electricity), Kyle Reid (First Tractor Power), Graham Cooper (First Welding), Stephanie Hartke (Second Surveying), Austin Neider (Second Carpentry), and Spencer Laughlin (Fifth Ag Business Management).
Lastly, he congratulated Austin Neider for first in MTI Welding Competition along with Graham Cooper who received second and Josh Jacobs who received third. He went on to explain that prom is scheduled for May 5 and graduation is slated for May 20 at 2:00pm.
Lori Emmons, middle school principal, extended her luck to Stephen DeMartini and Emily Harszy who will be attending the State Science Fair in Champaign. She also explained that fifth grade students will attend an orientation in the middle school to ease the preparation for sixth grade. “We are very excited to do this for our future 6 grade students,” Emmons explained, “Hopefully it will ease some of the anxiety that goes along with starting middle school.”
Emmons went on to announce that the middle school honors banquet will be on May 2 and Mrs. Gloria Sidar will be the guest speaker. She closed with conference news. The baseball team won the 2M conference this year along with the eighth grade basketball team while the eighth grade girls baseball team and seventh grade boys basketball team got second in the 2M conference.
Benld Elementary principal, Angela Turcol, announced that Rylee Jarman won the fifth grade spelling bee held at Carlinville Intermediate School. She also went on to say that the AR Picnic with the Principal is going to be held on May 11. Students who reached their AR goal will be treated to a picnic at Big Brick Park where they get to dine with the principal and engage in activities.
Lastly, the board approved the FSY 2013 school calendar as presented, and approved to amend FSY 2012 calendar as presented in new business. They also approved to apply for the 50/50 match maintenance Grant of $50,000 as presented and accepted the FSY 2012 School District Library Grant in the amount of $1,012.57.
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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.
