Franklin County needed a little good news

by Steve Dunford

In 1983 Anne Murray had a hit called A Little Good News.  Sometimes in the news cycle, you deliver more bad than good news, it is just the nature of the business.

Here in Illinois we are entering the possibility of the third year without a budget, with our second governor.  The only solution to the problem is to get Mike Madigan out as speaker.

Every Monday morning, the men of my church, Calvary Baptist Church meet for prayer, bible study and breakfast.  Most of the time we have donuts, sometimes, there is a lady in the church that fixes a breakfast better than you can get any restaurant.

It is usually about ten of us.  If someone would listen we could fix all the world’s problems in 30 minutes or less.  The conversation turned to a rant about Springfield.  I told everyone to look at me.  I am gray, fat, and bald.  I said Madigan was elected to the Illinois Legislature when I was six months old.  That is the problem.

We live in a country that is divided.  Love him or hate him, Donald Trump is our president.  The reason I believe he is in office, because people were on their knees the Sunday before the election, asking God to give us his will,  and who he wants in the White House.  If you don’t like the man, pray for him.

Last week was a tough week.  I published some obituaries of some that I was very close to their families.  When House Majority Steve Scalise was shot, just put it the way it is, by a nut from the Metro East added to the said week I had.

Since the fall of the coal industry in the late 80’s and early 90’s we have struggled in this county.

When I still lived in Sesser, I made friends with Michael Nix, who was pastor of the Church of Christ in town.  He took me to the Maid Rite in Christopher one day, and picked my mind for several hours.

He asked when people would tell me where they used to work they use numbers, he assumed they were coal mines and I told him.  I gave him all the numbers of the Old Ben, Freeman, and Consol mines, explained where they were located.

I then told him how times were good in the county, and how Benton, West Frankfort, Christopher, and Sesser had bustling downtowns.  He was amazed that Sesser had a Chevrolet dealer, and Christopher had a Ford dealer at one time.

I told him with Old Ben Coal having five operating mines in the county at one time, times were great.  UMWA health care was outstanding.  I told him our savior to our economy was Continental Tire expanding in Mt. Vernon, and Big Muddy Correctional Center.  I also told him the expansion of AISAN has helped.

I did an experiment on Friday.  I had to take care of a couple things in town.  I sat incognito in the storefront of the old Jacobs-Lane Jewelers building here in West Frankfort.

I remember a time that on a Friday afternoon those sidewalks were bustling, especially when the local merchants had their sales.  The parking lot on the corner of Emma and Poplar used to be full, there were very few cars.

It took 17 minutes for someone to pass me by, and it was a kid riding his bike.  I became depressed for a minute, then I began to think how great Franklin County is, and how we have so much to offer.  I am going to turn the bleak picture into a happy one.

We had two big shots in the arm this week.  The first is the state seeking a vendor for the Rend Lake resort, the second was last night the Toler Cinema has been sold and going to reopen as a theater.

Right after college, I took a temporary job as a ranger at Wayne Fitzgerell.  When I was finished it rolled into a job for IDOT.

This was in the early 90’s when the resort was brand new.  When I would patrol there, I was thinking what an awesome facility for this county.

Every time I would go to an event, pass by in a boat, camping or fishing at the state park I was mesmerized.  It is sad the state it is in.

The resort will be resurrected soon.  Any time I was there, the majority of the license plates on vehicles were out of state, especially Missouri.  Dollars spent here will have a domino effect, meaning more jobs, and employees that will be spending money.  A good economy breeds jobs.

Look at the picture to the left that Tesa Glass of the Mt. Vernon Register-News took at the announcement of the state reopening the resort.  With the legislators standing there at the lakefront, paints a picture how blessed we are in this county.  I see optimism in this.

In a side note, Mt. Vernon is blessed to have two great daily newspapers.  Most major cities only have one paper.  I used to read the R-N a lot when I was in the King City on a daily basis a few years ago.  It is a great publication.

,There was excitement on the social media site Talk Benton last night when Maranda Rush shared about the sale of the Toler Cinema building and a theater would be built.

I had a great half hour conversation on the phone with Maranda last night.  When it reopens, those are tax dollars going into the coffers of Franklin County that Williamson and Jefferson Counties are receiving now.

I just checked the little blurb I put out last night.  Currently it sits at 16,798 views on Facebook.  That is a record for this site.  It shows the excitement.

Part of the excitement for me is the memories that most of us in the county have in that building.  I am going to share mine in another piece.

To have venues like movie theaters in the county, we have to support them.  In general we need to support the local businesses in this county as much as possible.

Maranda’s conversation last night was very uplifting.  She had a vision for a theater back in Benton.  The years she spent working at Toler Cinema became a strong passion of hers.  The investors are going to make this come to pass.

We both talked about the vision for this county in general.  I shared a lot of them last week in the column on I-57.

I used to be a long winded preacher, and now I have turned into a long winded writer.  I am going to preach at the residents of this county now.

There are two things that is a general feeling about this county.  The first is the complaints there is nothing to do here….I am bored…..there is nothing for the kids to do.

The second is the inferiority complex we have.  It is because most of us have lost our vision.

Consider what this bible verse shares:

Proverbs 29:18 ¹⁸Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

There is good things happening here because we have so many residents in this county that are visionaries.

Develop a vision for the future.  I have a vision for several things.  One is a vision where to take this website.  The extensive growth will result in advertising dollars.

A vision for the future creates hope.  Put your hope and trust in the Lord first.

That is more than a little good news.  That is the best news that you will ever hear.