Featured

Lady Miners fall short in overtime

Published

13 years ago

November 22, 2011

BenGil Staff

Alexis Burns hits the jumpshot over Wesclin defenders.

The Lady Miners faced off with Wesclin High Saturday evening, November 19, in their first game of the Southwestern Girls Round Robin Tournament. The Miners, who are 0-28 in the tournament all time, came into the tournament with a 0-1 record after losing to Carrollton by just two points.

Gillespie Lady Miners started strong, using their speed and zone press to fight back after an early deficit, but Wesclin countered with several runs of their own. The Miner offense sputtered against the Warriors pressure defense, but the lead changed over 15 times throughout the course of the game and both teams ended with 39 to send the game into overtime.

The Miner offense struggled in the first quarter and could only tally 8 points despite the 11 turnovers Wesclin committed. Starting the second period with a 8-8 tie, the Miners started in the opposite fashion as they took an early lead and carried it for much of the quarter until it neared end and Wesclin made a return.

Wesclin was able to regain the lead with a buzzer-beater at the end of the second quarter to give them a 14-16 advantage heading into the locker room at halftime.

Coming out of the locker room at halftime trailing by just 2 points, the Miners started the second half in possession of the ball. The Lady Miners played a more aggressive side of defense in the second half, as Loni Nicole Manalia and Ellen Gray led on the offensive end. After scoring the same amount of points in the third quarter as they scored in the first half, the Miners were in control of the scoreboard heading into the final quarter of play: 28-27.

The fourth quarter was a long eight minutes as both teams were shooting bonus free throws the entire quarter. The Lady Miners struggled from the free throw line, shooting just 29% for the entire game as they missed 10 out of their 14 attempted. As the quarter neared end, the Miners were in control of the game with a 4 point lead with a minute on the clock.

Loni Nicole Manalia plays hard defense.

One minute served no justice as Wesclin was able to tie the game up at 39 with just two trips down the court. With 30 seconds remaining, the Lady Miners were in control of the ball to get the last shot of the game and potentially take home their first win of the tournament in 7 years. But with 30 seconds, the Miners were unable to get a shot off as Shelby Jarman’s basket came after time had already expired.

Tied at 39, the Miners were in an unfamiliar place: overtime. The clock was set a 4 minutes and Wesclin controlled the jump-ball to take the first possession, but the Miners took control of the lead just 2 minutes into the final period after a made free-throw brought the game to 40-39.

Wesclin soon returned to the free throw line and tied the game at 40 after missing the first free throw and with 1:40 minutes left, the game was tied yet again. After a trip down on the offensive end was unsuccessful, the Miners fouled yet again to send Wesclin back to the charity line. Wesclin, who struggled from the free throw line also, made one to gain the lead: 41-40.

A minute rolled off the clock with no action, but Alexis Burns was able to find Haylie Kirkwood open underneath the basket for an easy bucket and the Miners led 42-41 with just 21 seconds left to play. With time for just one last trip down, Wesclin was able to find the bottom of the net with 6.7 seconds left to take control of the lead one last time.

After the made basket, Coach Gray and the Miners drew up their offensive plan for 6 seconds left in their final timeout of the game. The Miners were able to cross half court and set up for a three pointer, but the Miners took their first 43-42 defeat in the 2011 tournament as the ball rolled out of the rim.

Scorers of the game were: Loni Nicole Manalia (9 points); Haylie Kirkwood (6 points); Chelsea Gill (5 points); Tyler Ross and Alexis Burns (4 points); and Ellen Gray (2 points).

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Featured

Gillespie man injured in DUI accident

Published

9 years ago

October 16, 2015

BenGil Staff

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

Published

9 years ago

August 1, 2015

BenGil Staff

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.”

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 13^th 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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