Featured
Miners take 6th place in Metro Thanksgiving Tourney
Published
13 years agoon
By
BenGil Staff
For a so-called rebuilding year, the Gillespie Miner basketball team sure surprised many fans after their performance in the Metro Thanksgiving Tournament. The Miners start their season off ever year with a basketball tournament at Edwardsville Metro Lutheran.
The Miners have not finished better than seventh place for a few years now, and it was not expected to be any better this season. With just two short weeks of practices, the tournament usually sets the tone of the season as the Miners get to face off against all levels of talent.
This year, the Miners were pooled up with Edwardsville Metro Lutheran, Roxana, Lovejoy, and Dupo. After four pool play games, the teams’ record determines whom they will face off against on Saturday against the opposite pool. The Miners finished 2-3 in the tournament and grabbed sixth place, out of 8 teams.
The Miners opened the tournament against Metro East Lutheran on Monday evening, November 19. It was a shaky start for team as they trailed 12-20 after the first quarter and 30-41 by halftime. After halftime, the momentum favored the Miner squad despite playing Metro East on their home court.
Basket after basket, point after point, the Miner squad was within a single point by the end of the third quarter: 47-48. The boys outscored the Knights by double digits in the third to set up a fourth quarter worth watching. Seniors Brenden Engelke and Chase Peterson carried the Miners in the fourth quarter as the pair scored 9 points and 8 points respectively. The pair of seniors helped the team outscore the Knights by another 10 points in the fourth quarter to give the Miners their first win in the tournament by a score of 67-58.
Standing with a 1-1 record, the Miners faced off against the best team in their pool on Wednesday evening. Roxana has a tough lineup this season and went on to take first place in the tournament. The Shells put the Miners behind early and had a 10-point lead after the first quarter: 16-6. By halftime, the Miners trailed by 15 points.
Roxana turned up the heat in the second half. The Miners had a tough time on the defensive end and gave the Shells countless attempts at the free throw line. After being outscored by double digits, the Miners trailed 20-57 at the end of the third quarter. The Miners took advantage of the last eight minutes and were able to close the margin by 10 points, but still took the loss 31-59.
After losing to Roxana, the Miners were 1-1 in the tournament and came back Friday morning to face Lovejoy. After celebrating Thanksgiving, the Miners had two games to play on Friday. The boys played Lovejoy at 10am and Dupo at 4pm.
Lovejoy had a quick team that handled the ball well, but posed no threat to the Miner squad as the Gillespie team played a well-organized, quick defense. The Miners edged out an early lead over Lovejoy, but Lovejoy regained the lead toward the end of the quarter and put the Miners behind 10-12 after the first eight minutes.
Trailing by just two points, the Miners had a rough time in the second quarter stopping dribble penetration. Baskets were few and far between in the second quarter and the Miners had a nine-point deficit at the half: 19-28.
Chris Halpin and Blake Peterson attempted a two-man comeback in the third quarter as the pair scored 6 and 8 points respectively, but fell short of a comeback and held the nine-point deficit. Still down by 9 points with eight minutes left in the game, the Miners battled Lovejoy up until the final seconds.
The Miners were within 1 point with less than a minute left, but came up short after Lovejoy knocked down a wide open field goal to edge the game out: 50-47. After winning their first game, but losing their next two, the Miners were 1-2 in the tournament. Chris Halpin, junior, led the Miner squad versus Lovejoy with 15 points, Blake Peterson followed up with 11, and Brenden Engelke put forth 10.
After sitting around all day, the Miners returned to the court at 4pm to face off against Dupo. The Miners jumped out to an early 19-18 lead, but gave the lead up in the second quarter after the Tigers outscored the Miners 14-8. By halftime, the Miners trailed 27-32.
The second half is where the Miners pick up the momentum. The boys in orange scored nearly double the amount of points in the second half compared to the first half. The Miners outscored the Tigers in both the third and fourth quarters, but didn’t regain the lead until the fourth quarter. Trailing by just two points, 44-46, at the start of the final quarter, the Miners were leading the game within one minute.
It was a flip-flop match for the lead during the first couple minutes of the fourth quarter, but the Miners took advantage of the free shots from the free throw line in the final quarter. Evan Price knocked down 5 of his 6 free throws while Chris Halpin put forth 3 points to outscore the Tigers by 10 points in the fourth quarter and win their final pool play game by a score of 66-58.
Blake Peterson led the team in points over Dupo with 22, Chris Halpin followed Peterson with 17, and junior Jacob Fredericks put forth 11 with four field goals and a single three bomb.
After going an even 2-2 in pool play, the Miners faced off for fourth place on Saturday against Litchfield. The Miners and Panthers were neck and neck after the first quarter as they were knotted up at 12 points. After scoring just four points in the second quarter, the Miners trailed 16-27 at halftime.
The Panthers continued the scoring run in the second half and outscored the Miners 14-9 in the third quarter. By the start of the fourth quarter, the Panthers led the game 41-25. Despite leading by 16 points, the Litchfield crew kept their stars in the final quarter until the final minute. The Panthers went on to extend their lead to 26 points by the end of the game to give the Miners a sixth place finish by a score of 40-66.
Despite losing, Chris Halpin led the Miners with 11 points while Brenden Engelke and Blake Peterson put forth 6 points respectively.
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Featured
Gillespie man injured in DUI accident
Published
10 years agoon
October 16, 2015By
BenGil Staff
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
10 years agoon
August 1, 2015By
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.”
[pullquote]We need to have a standardized process on how we buy things[/pullquote]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 13th 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
[pullquote]We should stretch the money out and begin to reinvest the money into community development[/pullquote]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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Elementary School News
Elementary school releases supply lists for fall
Published
10 years agoon
July 15, 2015By
BenGil Staff

Kindergarten
- 5 boxes CRAYOLA brand crayons (24 count)
- 1 box CRAYOLA brand broad-line markers (classic)
- 1 backpack
- 1 box of water paints
- 1 pair FISKAR brand scissors (children’s)
- 6 large glue sticks
- 1 small plastic school box
- 4 pocket folders
- 4 large erasers
- 20 pencils (#2, lead, plain yellow)
- 2 boxes of Kleenex
- 2 rolls of paper towels
- 2 containers of anti-bacterial wipes
- 1 large box of sandwich size ZIPLOC bags (girls)
- 1 large box of gallon ZIPLOC bags (boys)
- 1 clipboard
- 1 highlighter
- 1 spiral 1-subject notebook (wide ruled)
- Extra set of clothes to keep at school
- Tennis shoes for P.E.
First Grade
- 1 plastic school box
- 3 packs of pencil top erasers
- 2 large pink erasers
- 5 packs of Ticonderoga brand pencils
- 2 yellow highlighters
- 2 boxes of CRAYOLA crayons (24 count)
- 12 Elmer’s brand glue sticks
- 1 pair of FISKAR brand scissors
- 1 spiral 1-subject notebook (wide ruled)
- 2 plastic 2-pocket folders
- 1 8ct classic CRAYOLA fine line markers
- 2 dry erase markers
- 1 roll of paper towels
- 2 boxes of Kleenex
- 3 containers of Clorox Anti-Bacterial Wipes
- 1 box of sandwich size ZIPLOC bags (girls)
- 1 box of gallon ZIPLOC bags (boys)
- Tennis shoes for P.E.
- Extra set of clothes to keep at school
Second Grade
- Handheld pencil sharpener
- 8 large Elmer’s glue sticks
- 1 large zippered pencil bag
- 24 – #2 pencils
- 1 wide ruled spiral notebook
- 1 package wide ruled loose leaf paper
- (2) 1” three ring binder
- 1 pack of pencil top erasers
- 1 pair of FISKARS brand pointed scissors
- 1 yellow highlighter
- 1 box broad line classic CRAYOLA markers
- 2 boxes CRAYOLA crayons (24 count)
- 2 plastic pocket folders
- 1 CRAYOLA watercolor paints
- 1 box of Kleenex
- 1 roll of paper towels
- Large Ziploc bags
- Sandwich size Ziploc bags
- 2 containers of Clorox wipes
- 1 box of CRAYOLA colored pencils
- 2 dry erase markers
- Extra set of clothes to leave at school
- Tennis shoes for P.E.
Third Grade
- 1 small school box
- 4 packages of pencils (#2, plain yellow)
- 2 boxes CRAYOLA crayons (24 count)
- 1 box CRAYOLA colored pencils
- 1 highlighter
- 1 pair pointed scissors
- 6 ELMER glue sticks
- 2 pocket folders
- 3 boxes Kleenex
- 2 containers of CLOROX wipes
- 1 roll of paper towels
- 1 package of loose leaf paper (wide rule)
- 2 notebooks (wide rule)
- (2) 1” binders
- 2 packs of pencil top erasers
- Gallon-sized Ziploc bags (boys)
- Sandwich-sized Ziploc bags (girls)
- 2 packages of post-it notes
- Tennis shoes for P.E.
Fourth Grade
- 2 packages of wide rule loose leaf paper
- 48 pencils
- 3 packs pencil top erasers
- (1) 2” binder
- 1 box 24 or 48 count CRAYOLA crayons
- 1 pair FISKAR scissors
- 1 box of colored pencils
- 1 single subject notebook (wide rule)
- 3 folders
- 2 packages of white index cards
- 4 highlighters
- 4 packages of post-it notes
- 2 boxes Kleenex
- 1 container of Clorox wipes
- Hand held Pencil Sharpener
- Dividing tabs for binder
- Tennis shoes for P.E.
Fifth Grade
- Art Box
- Pencil Pouch
- 36 pencils (mechanical preferred)
- 12 pencil top erasers
- Crayola crayons
- Markers
- Crayola Colored Pencils
- Red or Blue Pen
- Scissors
- Clear Ruler
- Clear Protractor
- 1 Bottle of Elmer’s Glue or 2 Glue Sticks
- (1) 3 Ring Binder (2 inch)
- 2 notebooks (one subject-wide ruled)
- 1 package of loose leaf paper (wide ruled)
- 3 folders
- 2 highlighters
- 2 boxes Kleenex
- Girls-Antibacterial Wipes
- Boys-4 pack of post it notes
- Hand Held Pencil Sharpener
- Pocket Dictionary
- Tennis shoes for P.E.
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