Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News
Newspaper covering Franklin County, Illinois
State Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion) is asking Franklin County residents to donate old cell phones through the end of this month.
The cell phones will go to Cell Phones for Soldiers, which sells them to a recycling company and uses the proceeds to buy phone cards for soldiers.
Drop off phones by Nov. 30 at the following West Frankfort Public Library, 402 E. Poplar St., or the Benton Public Library, 502 S. Main St.
Public hearings are set for 10:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 19, and Tuesday, Nov. 20, at West Frankfort City Hall, regarding the electric aggregation process.
Earlier this month, West Frankfort voters approved a measure that allows city officials to seek out proposals on behalf of residents and businesses from electricity suppliers. The city has an agreement with Select Energy Partners to handle the process.
City officials have said they hope that electric aggregation will result in lower electricity rates for the city’s homes and businesses.
The city’s current electric utility, Ameren, would still control infrastructure – such as power poles and lines – and delivery of electricity, regardless of the supplier selected. Residents and businesses wishing to remain with Ameren would be able to opt out of the city’s electric aggregation contract.
Nick Hill, a representative of Select Energy, will outline the next steps in the electric aggregation process and facilitate the public hearings this week.
— Bruce A. Fasol
PULASKI, Tenn. – The Morthland College women’s basketball team fell to host school Martin Methodist University 107-45 on Friday.
The Lady Patriots are off to a 0-4 start to their season, but fatigue might be a factor after playing just six players on the road last night at Bethel College, along with a quick turn-around for today’s game. Martin Methodist got off to a quick start and never looked back following a 52-26 first half. The Redhawks (4-5) shot 55 percent from the field, and 35 percent from downtown.
Morthland was led by Jade Vaughn who scored 18 points, while Gena Jones scored 15 and pulled down 5 rebounds.
The Lady Patriots won’t be back in action until Nov. 26, when they take on Blue Mountain College.
Rough railroad crossings have been a concern for drivers in West Frankfort for some time, and now a city commissioner says that while the matter hasn’t been resolved as quickly as she’d like, progress is finally being made.
“Efforts to have several of these crossings addressed for maintenance has gone on for a number of months now but I finally have a meeting set with representatives for Union Pacific and I’m confident getting them here to walk the tracks and talk about improvements is a good first step in the right direction,” Streets and Public Improvements Commissioner Tara Fasol-Chambers said. “Unfortunately, there isn’t much the city can do about railroad tracks. We can’t fix them and the railroad has easement on the actual roadway adjoining the tracks, as well. What we can do is ask and urge them to make needed fixes, and that’s what we have been doing.”
Fasol-Chambers said the meeting just before Thanksgiving Day should secure the necessary steps for getting the tracks fixed. She said she also hopes it is a step toward a better working relationship between the city and Union Pacific.
“This hasn’t been the ideal situation, by far, and I’d really like to create a better line of communication so that problems in the future can be handled in a more timely fashion,” she said. “We all learned a hard lesson a few years ago when efforts to have stop arms installed dragged out for more than a year and were only met after the death of one of our residents. That can never happen again. We must have the ability to contact them when needed and them to contact us when needed so that safety concerns are met quickly. We need the ability to be proactive about our approach to addressing those concerns. These are more than just ‘rough’ crossings as they have been labeled, in my opinion. They are a danger to motorists and that’s not acceptable.”
Fasol-Chambers said she is happy to see progress moving forward on efforts to have the tracks fixed and asks that residents continue to be patient and cautious in the meantime.
Monday, Nov. 19 is the last day to make reservations for the Franklin County Farm Bureau’s annual meeting, to be held Monday, Nov. 26 at the Benton Civic Center.
The meeting will include a meal prepared by Martin’s Catering, a silent auction and entertainment by Nine Mile Creek. Registration begins at 5 p.m., with dinner being served at 6:15 p.m.
To make reservations, call the Farm Bureau office at (618) 435-3616.
Photo by Janet Robbins
Members of the Sesser-Valier Outdoorsmen Club include (front row, left to right) Kenzie Tindall, Shelby Payne, Logan Farmer, Elijah Pearce, (middle row, left to right) Mariah Miller, Marriah Montgomery (back row, left to right) Assistant Sponsor Brandon Dilliner, Matt Bays, Fallon Dublo, Emma Robbins, Marie Myers, Taylor Dilliner, Hunter Sample and Sponsor Mike Sample.
Disabled deer hunters got a morning in the woods today thanks to a special program at Rend Lake hosted by the Sesser-Valier High School Outdoorsmen Club.
For more than three decades, students have risen in the wee hours one day a year to build blinds, prepare breakfast, place scent and escort disabled hunters out to a designated spot at Rend Lake for hunting.
More than 800 hunters have been served through this volunteer program through the years, with more than 30 going out each year.
Mike Sample and Brandon Dillner are the sponsors of the Outdoorsmen Club at SVHS.
By Tom Wheeler
The 38th Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament starts Monday and it sure brings back memories for this ol’ Coach. So I thought, since I’ve seen every tournament. Here is some trivia that you may or may not remember.
I’ll just ramble so try to stay with me.
Three teams have been in the tourney all 38 years: Christopher, Zeigler-Royalton and Webber Township … Galatia coached by Benton’s Don Smith won the inaugural tournament and two years later his brother Ron Smith won the tournament with Coulterville … Christopher defeated Coulterville in 84,85,and 86 in the Championship game, in 86 current Sparta athletic director Richie Williams was the Eagles coach, his starting point guard was Gary Gischer who later coached at Christopher, Williams also coached in the tournament at Elverado where he got so excited one night he ripped the seat out of his pants … the St. Louis Cardinals Corey Bailey played in the tournament with Crab Orchard before moving to Marion for his senior year … Rodney Seips of Egyptian also played minor league baseball … the biggest star to ever attend the tournament was tennis great Jennifer Capriati, who came to see Shane Boner play (she dated Shane’s brother in California) … Logan athletic director and baseball coach Jerry Halstead played in the first tournament with Carterville when he started as a freshman … Z-R’s Matt Swalls was MVP in 1981 and teammate Sean Connor in 1983, Matts group won the tournament but Sean was the first player to win from a team that wasn’t champions (they finished fourth) … their best tourney team may have been in 1982 but the Tornadoes were busy winning the IHSA Class A state championship in football in Bloomington as all five basketball starters played football … Bruce Weber, coach at Kansas State, came to the tourney to scout Egyptian’s Dana Ford when he was at SIU … Current CCHS freshman coach Rick Cook was 12-0 as varsity coach in his four tournaments … my wife Lynda sure loves Turkey week as there are NO suppers prepared that week, I’m usually found in the great hospitality room along with many ‘regulars’ … CCHS revealed a beautiful new portable floor for the 77-78 season but this year’s floor won’t take a back door to that one …
Looking back I can’t believe how many of my ex-teammates coached in the tournament like John Kretz, Rick Cook,(fast pitch) Ed Belva,Steve Strickland, Wendell Wheeler, Russ Hobbs, Mike Henson, Wes Choate, Nick Laur(slow pitch) Cliff Davis, Ken Dillingham, (McKendree basketball) Roger Yates (Coal Belt baseball) and Don Gines (McLeansboro Jr. High basketball) … Mt. Vernon legend Doug Creel coached in the tournament at Thompsonville and his best player was current West Frankfort Lady Red Birds coach Matt Hampelman … ZR’S superintendent George Wilkerson played in the tournament as did CCHS’s super Rich Towers (MVP in 86) … Varsity coaches who played in the tournament include CCHS coaches Eric Stallman, Jeff Minor, Jeff Gossett, and Gary Gischer, ZR’S Quinn Laird, Matt Morgan, Jamie Moyers and Brent Kreid, Thompsonville’s Brandon Chapman and Brock Harris … now it’s time for more trivia from the 2012 tournament and with six members of the all-tournament team returning, including 2011 MVP Devantae Price of defending champion Egyptian, it should bring more great basketball to kick off the 2012-23 season.
By Shane Dyel
The Benton Middle School Rangerettes moved to 8-0 with a convincing 20-point win over Harrisburg Wednesday night on Benton’s home floor.
The Rangerettes put together a strong second and third quarter run to put the Lady Bulldogs away.
Benton started sluggishly to open a 13-5 first quarter lead. The Rangerettes put the defensive pressure on Harrisburg to open a 22 point halftime lead.
Ally Gischer lead the Rangerettes scoring with 14 points. Joining her in double figures was Makayla Abney with 11. Chipping in with 4 points each were Alexis Abney, Cristen Shaw, and Kaylee Pedigo
‘’Harrisburg is down a little this year, but their kids played hard’’ observed coach Mark Dyel. ‘’I thought we played hard enough to win but there are still a lot of areas we can improve in. Next week our schedule gets a lot tougher with road games at Carbondale and at unbeaten Herrin.’’
While Gischer led the Rangerettes in scoring, she also played tough defense recording seven steals. Benton’s 2-1-2 zone defense forced Harrisburg into several turnovers.
Benton’s seventh grade team lost their first conference game to drop to 2-3 on the year.
In a low scoring first half Benton trailed 9-5 at the break. The Rangerettes were never able to close the gap in the second half eventually falling 24-15.
The seventh grade squad is still playing without leading scorer Kenedee Kendrick, who suffered a concussion in a game last week., said coach Daniel Clyden.
“We are still without Kenedee and that hurts us both offensively and defensively,” Clyden said. “But, we had way to many turnovers in this game.”
Brittany Johnson had scoring honors with 5 points followed by Lindsey Seidel and Haylie Schelsky with 4 a piece and Ebby Casey scoring two.
By Jim Muir
The Benton Rangerettes defeated the Herrin Lady Tigers 48-43 in Thursday night action at the Marion Lady Wildcats Invitational.
The hard fought victory moved the Rangerettes to 2-0 on the season and also leaves Benton as the only team in the five-team, round-robin tournament without a loss heading into weekend play.
“It was a tough, hard fought victory,” said first-year coach Andy Sloan. “It wasn’t always pretty and we still need to do a much better job taking care of the basketball but we played hard and competed. Herrin is a well-coached team so it is a nice win for us.”
The Rangerettes jumped out to a 9-8 first quarter lead only to see Herrin go on an 11-3 run to open up a 19-12 lead with five minutes remaining in the second stanza. Keyed by six points from senior Morgan Corn the Rangerettes went on 12-3 run to end the quarter and take a 24-22 halftime lead.
“I thought we closed the second quarter strong and I also thought we had more energy in the second half,” said Sloan. “It was a very physical game.”
With the victory Benton is 2-0 and Herrin drops to 1-1 heading into games on Friday and Saturday. Benton will face Carterville (1-2) tonight at 6 p.m. while Herrin will meet Marion (1-1) at 7:30 p.m. Vienna has a bye on Friday and will meet Herrin at 11 a.m and Benton will face Marion in the tournament finale at 12:30 on Saturday.
Corn led the Rangers with 17 points followed by Makala Carney with 13. Rounding out the Benton scoring was Rowdee Sanders with six, Evelyn Mendez with five, Cali Carney with four and Katie Sandusky and Marcela Mendez with two each. Sami Minor played but did not score. Leading Herrin was Gabby Woodis and Tori Johnson with 13 each and also in double figures was Abby Horn with 12.
In the early game on Thursday Vienna, led by 26 points from Carley Childress, defeated Carterville 53-41.
Benton 9 15 14 11 — 49
Herrin 8 14 13 19 — 44
BENTON (49): E. Mendez 1 2-2 5, M. Carney 5 3-4 13, M. Mendez 0 2-4 2, Sandusky 1 0-0 2, Sanders 1 4-6 6, Corn 4 9-11 17, C. Carney 2 0-2 4,. Totals: 14 20-29 49.
HERRIN (44): Horn 5 0-0 12, W. Woodis 1 1-1 3, Johnson 4 5-8 13, G. Woodis 5 0-0 13, Hunter 1 0-1 2, Yates 0 1-2 1. Totals: 16 9-12 44.
The Morthland College women’s basketball team fell to Bethel College on Thursday night, 86-38.
The Lady Patriots shot just .240 percent in the first half behind scoring leader Jade Vaughn, who scored 16 points. Junior Gena Jones put in 13 points while pulling down 6 rebounds.
The Morthland women will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Pulaski, Tenn. to take on Martin Methodist University.
