Benton students collect items for food pantry

STAFF REPORT

The Benton High School Fellowship of Christian Students/Fellowship of Christian Athletes club recently collected food items for the Benton Ministerial Alliance food pantry.

The students had read that the food pantry was running low this fall and wanted to do something to help. It was completely their idea.

Items were donated by Benton High School students and faculty in their classrooms at the school.

In addition, items were collected at the gate at the home football playoff game against Robinson this year. Ultimately, several hundred items were collected and donated.

Turkey and all the ‘trimmings’ – Sesser food pantry helps more than 100 families

 

By Jim Muir

Holiday cheer and the true spirit of Christmas was on full display Tuesday morning at Sesser’s City Hall with a joint effort by the Sesser-Valier Area Lifeline Food Pantry and the Sesser United Methodist Church to help those in need this holiday season.

The Rev. Kirk Packer, pastor of the First Christian Church, serves as president of the Sesser Ministerial Alliance.  Rev. Packer said the ministerial alliance has been overseeing the monthly food pantry for nearly a decade.

“The need is there,” said Packer. “This month we had 107 families and that represents more than 400 people in the Sesser and Valier area.”

While the ministerial alliance was busy handing out dozens of boxes of non-perishable food items the Sesser United Methodist Church was busy dispensing more than 100 turkeys — one for each family that requested assistance through the ministerial alliance.  And for those with a sweet tooth boxes of homemade Christmas cookies were also given to each participating family.

The turkey giveaway by the church is a new ministry started this year that was ran in conjunction with the monthly food pantry program.  The turkeys were purchased by Ron and Betty Hodges, of Sesser.

Sesser Mayor Ned Mitchell said the food pantry program operates on the third Tuesday of each month and consistently ministers to more than 100 families in the Sesser-Valier area.  Mitchell said the program is open to any person who lives in the local school district.

“Certainly there is a big need in the Sesser and Valier areas,” said Mitchell.  “The turkey was added by the church but the food pantry is an ongoing thing.”

 

Amos Mitchell, left, who is celebrating his 93rd Christmas season, and Louis Ruppert, were busy Tuesday morning as part of the group from Sesser United Methodist Church handing out 100 turkeys to those who visited the local food pantry.

West Frankfort high rise still fighting bed bugs

By BRUCE A. FASOL

“I hate to bring this up …” Franklin County Housing Authority Director Monica Stewart sighed and said Monday night at the authority board’s final meeting of the year. Stewart had to report that the authority is still fighting bed bugs in the Anna Gray High Rise building in West Frankfort.

Last week, 17 units in the building were inspected, and six of them came back positive for the pests.

The theory for the continuing problems is that residents are violating instructions not to remove anything from their apartments, and are spreading the insects. Stewart told the board there is a prep list of things that an infected apartment’s inhabitants must do before the housing authority will come in to treat the bugs, but these things are not always done. And that makes the costly treatments less effective.

Each professional bedbug treatment costs the housing authority $1,800, and none of that amount can be passed on to the tenant. Some tenants have had as many as four bedbug treatments.

The Board has now adopted a policy that would allow it to evict tenants who do not comply with the bed bug prep list.

Stewart also outlined a new collections policy for past-due accounts. Currently, the Housing Authority utilizes the services of Merchants Credit, a local collection agency.

Beginning in  2013, the housing authority will participate in a state program that will allow it to garnish state income tax refunds to collect past-due funds. There is an appeals process, which Director Stewart said the Authority will be briefed on this week.

“We have about 350 accounts, and we want to start this process before income tax season,” she said.

In other Board actions:
  • Bids were accepted for purchase on 80 new electric ranges.
  • Bids were accepted for bathroom renovations at Kuca High Rise, replacing standard equipment dating back to 1968 in some cases.
  • Accepted a bid with Housing Authority insurance group for vehicle, property, and general liability insurance. This represents a change of carrier from previously used ARMA insurance. With the new insurer, a $23,000 savings is projected. And, property insurance jumps up from the current $25 million dollars insured to $68 million dollars, which is the appraised worth of the county property owned by FCHA.
  • The Board approved a total of $29,207 in “write offs” as uncollectable debts left by tenants. In 2012, 189 people moved from Housing Authority premises, and 89 left debts.

Silent night, heartbroken night

I suppose that I may have started this- another Christmas column- with contrasts anyway, this week.  Warm southern Illinois temps, melting our preconceived ideals of a white Christmas. a calmness of a true silent Night as contrasted with the hassle and bustle of any major department store. We try so hard to close our eyes and hear the distant, traditional Christmas bells, in a cell phone world. But, I never planned to contrast the fervent holiday hope for Peace on Earth with the shattering headlines of mass murder in school. I may have mentioned Mideast turmoil, our troops in the field still, or some such more general reference. But, never did I plan on having to address funerals of precious innocents gunned down in cold blood so near the birthday of the Prince of Peace.

If you are expecting a logical, general, or moving explanation of how something like the Sandy Hook masscre can occur in a universe governed by a loving God, I am destined to disappoint you. I do not have a clue. I do not mean to be skeptical, irreverent, or seem anti-God in any way. But, the smallness of my mind can not fathom how a God who parted the Red Sea could not jam a gun, divert airplanes from Twin Towers, or strike down mass murders in their tracks.
Maybe some day I will be able to ask Him in person- quietly and with tears- how this could be. I am versed enough to expect some of these tears will be His when he explains it all to me. All I have to accept now is the always offered; “God had a purpose”. and, I don’t doubt that this is true. That about sums up what great theologians with all their books, and the neighborhood barber both can concur  for an explanation. in short- we just didn’t know why these things are allowed by the God of supreme Love to make us endure supreme heartbreak.
I come from a town that buried its dead at Black Christmas. The 1951 Mine Disaster saw funerals all through the Christmas holidays. Wreaths hung from doors..but they were black. A life is a life is a life- young or older.
But, the comparison becomes all the more heartbreaking when it is twisted little bodies with no hope of a future.
Methane caused our Mine Disaster. Evil from a place we dare not imagine in our own human hearts took the lives of young children and their teachers that horrible Friday morning. I can not answer why. I can only add in some small way, our town understands.
As citizens of the world, we all grieve. Newtown, you have the prayers of a West Frankfort resident. We will grieve with you each of your Black Christmas’ and seek an end to any other community having to share our mutual grief. Until then, we hold each other, we cry together, and we look to the Heavens together for a reasonable explanation that never comes.

Benton woman dies in fire

Franklin County authorities have identified the body of a Benton who died Thursday morning in an early morning fire.

Joni Rae Ziegler, 56, died of smoke inhalation in the fire at 1217 North Main St, according to information released by Franklin County Coroner Marty Leffler.  Funeral arrangements are incomplete for Ziegler at Union Funeral Home, in West Frankfort.

Joni Rae Ziegler died in an early morning house fire at the Benton residence on Thursday morning.
(Photo by Leigh Caldwell)

Benton firefighters responded to the blaze shortly before 8 a.m. and the fire was engaged with flames and smoke coming out the windows when firemen arrived.

Ziegler’s son was able to get out of the house but first responders could not reach the victim in time.

The state’s fire marshal was called in to investigate the fire.  Along with Benton, firefighters from Ewing-Northern Fire Protection District, West City, and West Frankfort responded to the fire while the Buckner Fire Department covered the Benton station.

The fire in Benton was one of two fatal fired Thursday morning in Southern Illinois.  Frank Horton, a 56-year-old Jefferson County man also perished in a fire at his Waltonville home.  Horton, who was legally blind and lived alone, also died of smoke inhalation.

Cause of the fire is under investigation by Benton Fire Department and the state fire marshal’s office.

Benton firefighters were assisted by firefighters from West City, West Frankfort and Ewing-Northern Fire Protection District; Buckner firefighters covered the Benton station.

Funeral arrangements for Ziegler are pending at Union Funeral Home in West Frankfort.

Lawsuit alleges disabled woman was sexually assaulted at local social service agency

By Jim Muir
A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Benton alleges that a developmentally disabled Franklin County woman was sexually assaulted while under the care of The H Group, a local social service agency.
The victim of the alleged rape is listed in the lawsuit as “Jane Doe” and was filed by her parents. Along with The H Group, two employees of the facility, John Sobeck and Cynthia Broskie, are also named as defendants.
According to the allegations Doe participated in the vocational education program at The H Group, located in West Frankfort, and was sexually assaulted by another individual who also was also a part of the program at the facility. The lawsuit states that Doe, who is 4-feet-11 and weighs approximately 100 pounds, suffers from Asberger’s syndrome, mental retardation, cerebral palsy and has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old.
The lawsuit alleges that Doe’s parents had for several months expressed concerns to supervisors at the facility that the alleged rapist “interactions with their daughter were inappropriate and indicated a possibility that he would prey on Doe.”
The lawsuit states that Doe’s parents were repeatedly assured by Sobeck and Broskie that their daughter was not in any danger.
Doe’s parents continued to express concern about their daughter’s safety and that concern escalated to the point that they removed her from the program. Doe’s parents were told repeatedly and given assurances by Sobeck that their daughter was not in any danger and that she was closely supervised at all times, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit contends that Doe was raped on May 14, 2010 in a bathroom stall of a men’s restroom at The H Group facility. Doe’s mother was not made aware of the matter for more than four hours and was told then that the other program participant has exposed himself to Doe but that the incident had not escalated, according to the court filing.
When Doe arrived home from The H Group on May 14 her clothes were “heavily soiled with both blood and bodily fluid that appeared to be semen” the lawsuit states. Doe had also “bled through to her outside clothing” and told her mother she was “hurting” in her genital area. An emergency room examination confirmed that Doe had had vaginal intercourse.
The lawsuit states that no medical attention was given to Doe and that law enforcement and the Illinois Office of Inspector General were never notified of the alleged sexual assault, as required by law.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare that the defendant’s conduct “unlawfully discriminated against the plaintiffs” and also asks for damages for injuries, costs, expenses an attorney’s fees along with punitive damages.
A jury trial is also requested. The lawsuit was filed by the Law Offices of Thomas E. Kennedy III, based in St. Louis.

Extra work needed on Benton Industrial Park II project

By LEIGH M. CALDWELL

An engineering mistake is adding additional work – and additional cost – to the road construction project underway at Benton Industrial Park II.

Benton Mayor Gary Kraft briefed the city council during its regular meeting Monday night on an engineering oversight that will require an additional $35,000 to relocated and encase some oil well lines during road construction at the project.

Officials broke ground in September on the $3 million undertaking, which includes the widening and resurfacing of portions of Central Street, Sugar Creek Road and Petroff Road, as well as an extension of Skylane Drive. Grants from the federal Economic Development Agency and Illinois Department of Transportation are providing about 90 percent of the funds for the project.

Kraft said the engineer who won the bid for the project overlooked the oil well lines, which have been in the ground since approximately 1980. Since they were there first, the project will have to pay for them to be moved, he said.

Greater Egypt Regional Planning and Development Commission officials are submitting a change order to the EDA to deal with the line relocation and encasement. City officials expressed hope that the EDA would come up with the additional funds.

If the EDA does not come through with the additional funds, city officials acknowledged they will have to come from somewhere.

“Without them [the oil well lines] being moved, the road can’t be completed,” said Benton City Attorney Tom Malkovich. Commissioners authorized Malkovich to negotiate and agreement between the company that owns the lines, Continental Resources Inc., and the city, so that work can progress.

In other action, the Benton City Council:

  • Approved wastewater treatment plant purchase orders of $3,371.58 for testing materials required by the EPA and $2,550 for balancer replacement.
  • Discussed donating two wastewater treatment plant vehicles to the city of Rosiclaire. The vehicles – a 1990 dump truck and a 1992 pick-up truck – are not in use. “They are salvage to us,” Kraft said. Rosiclaire officials had expressed a need for vehicles and said the city was willing to fix them if they were in disrepair. Benton officials are going to invite Rosiclaire officials to come look at the vehicles and decide if they want them. The matter was tabled until that visit takes place.
  • Approved a payment of $67,503.44 for Jeff Wiggs Excavating for water main replacement at Grand and Reed streets.
  • Authorized the city’s police department to spend a $570 holiday donation received from Fred’s Super Dollar on its Shop with a Cop program, which provides Christmas gifts for children in need.
  • Authorized the city’s fire department to spend $250 of its $570 holiday donation from Fred’s Super Dollar to purchase toys for the Toys for Tots program. The remaining $320 of the donation will also be donated to Toys for Tots as a cash donation.
  • Approved city payroll of $93,328.85.
  • Approved the annual tax levy ordinance.
  • Briefly discussed creating a liquor license for the Benton Bowl. Commissioners are researching how liquor licenses work at other area bowling alleys, and plan to take up the issue at the next regular council meeting on Dec. 27. (Click here to read our previous story about the liquor license request.)
  • Approved the rescheduling of the council’s next regular meeting to 7 p.m. Dec. 27, so that it does not conflict with Christmas Eve.
  • Continued the meeting until 8:30 a.m. Friday, when the council will pay city bills.

 

 

 

Rend Lake College Foundation director Leuty receives Presidential Award

Rend Lake College Foundation board member Jim Leuty receives the RLCF Presidential Award at the foundation’s annual dinner Thursday night. Presenting the award to Leuty is RLC President Terry Wilkerson, left, and RLCF CEO Shawna Hall.

STAFF REPORT

Jim Leuty received the Rend Lake College Foundation Presidential Award during the RLCF Annual Dinner Meeting Thursday night at the Mount Vernon Holiday Inn.

Leuty, 49, of Mount Vernon, is a CPA and partner at Krehbiel and Associates accounting firm. He is one of the newer members to the RLCF Board of Directors. However, his firm’s work on the Foundation’s audit in past years makes him very familiar with its functions.

With another firm conducting the most recent audits of the RLCF, Leuty found himself on the other side of the process. Foundation officials said it was his work on this audit that made Leuty deserving of the RLCF Presidential Award.

Shawna Hall, CEO of the Foundation, said Leuty was active in a series of long meetings about the audit.

“His expertise was vital,” said Hall. “I can’t thank him enough for his willingness to go above and beyond for the Foundation. It was reassuring to have him there as we went through the audit. But it doesn’t stop with the audit. Jim is always there to help out with our monthly financials or anything else we need.”

The RLCF Presidential Award is among the institution’s most prestigious honors and is reserved for an RLCF Board Member who shows exemplary service. The first recipients were Hunt Bonan, Mildred Fitzgerrell, Richard Garner and Howard L. Payne in 1995. Jim Kelly was the 1996 recipient, followed by Sam Mateer in 1997, Jimmy Fulks in 1998, Wendell Maulding in 1999, Rich Yunkus in 2000, Dr. Warren Petty in 2001, Bill Regenhardt and Mark Ballard in 2002, Dr. Gene Stotlar and Dr. Charles W. Roe in 2003, Dr. Robert Parks in 2004, Terry Addington in 2005, Millie Caldwell in 2006, Bob Thomason in 2007, Mary Ellen Aiken in 2008, Ed Cunningham in 2009, and Steve Rowland in 2010.

For more about the Foundation, visit online at www.rlc.edu/foundation.

West Frankfort native releases Christmas CD

West Frankfort native Jonathon Willis

By LEIGH M. CALDWELL

As many people adopt the “Shop Local” and “Shop Small” mantras at Christmas, Franklin County residents can ensure that even their Christmas music was “made in Southern Illinois,” so to speak.

Jonathon Willis, a West Frankfort native, has released “This Christmas Night,” a CD of his original arrangements of classic sacred Christmas songs, just in time for enjoyment and gift-giving this season.

Willis was born into a musical family — his father, Gary, a piano player, and his mother, Harriet, a singer. It was no surprise, then, that Willis was a “natural” when he began taking lessons at a young age. After graduating from Frankfort Community High School in 1988, he continued his musical training at Murray State University in Murray, Ky.

During his formative years, he also discovered a love and an aptitude for computers, and began to find ways to marry the two disciplines together. Willis moved to Nashville in the late 1990s, and there he became an in-demand music technology expert and consultant, as well as an arranger, producer, and player.

He has appeared on many artists’ recordings, including Phil Keaggy, Neal Morse, Newsong, Laura Turner, and Jim Weatherly. He has also written, arranged and produced music for several record labels, as well as music for Carnival and Celebrity cruise ships.

Willis has recorded several solo piano records over the years, and self-released a new CD of original music called simply “Solo Piano” in 2010.

This year has seen the release of his first Christmas album.

“I have had a lot of people over the years ask me when I was going to get around to putting out a Christmas CD,” Willis said. “I’ve been performing my own arrangements of many Christmas songs for a long time at different events. I just felt the time had come to go ahead and do it.”

“This Christmas Night” includes classic Christmas carols, such as “Joy to the World” and “Away in a Manger,” as well as more contemporary sacred Christmas songs, such as “Mary Did You Know” and “Breath of Heaven.” The music is a mix of classical, easy-listening and jazz piano styling, all with Willis’ personal stamp.

“There are songs on this project that really take me back to my childhood, that I think really help evoke a Christmas mood,” Willis said. As for his personal favorites on the album, “I’ve always enjoyed the mystery of the Christmas story, so I’m really drawn to the classic melodies and lyrics of songs like ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’ and ‘What Child Is This’.”

For a sampling of the music on “This Christmas Night,” click play on the video below for a short montage of three different songs from the album.

Willis said he made the conscious decision to keep sacred and secular music separate, and just put sacred Christmas music on this album. He plans to release an album of secular holiday music in 2013.

Willis, 42, lives in Spring Hill, Tenn., with his wife of 19 years, Diana, and the couple’s three children.

“This Christmas Night” can be ordered from Willis’ Web site, http://jonathonwillismusic.wordpress.com/ for $15, which includes shipping.

Late Bloomer: Sesser woman embarks on writing career after retirement

 

Phyllis Pearson with her just-published book “For Better or Worse.”
(Photo by Jim Muir)

 

By Jim Muir

While some people look at the golden years of retirement as a time to relax, kick-back and watch the world go by Phyllis Pearson saw it as a chance to embark on a new career.

Clearly the most remarkable thing about her decision is the fact that it wasn’t just any old career that Pearson chose – at the age of 71 she decided to write a book.  And in a matter of a few months, “For Better or Worse” – 218 pages in paperback about a young girl named Maggie – was finished.

A native of Franklin County and a current resident of Sesser, Pearson said she prayed about a direction for her life.

“I prayed for guidance,” said Pearson.  “I am in fairly good health for a person my age and I sure didn’t want to sit and twiddle my thumbs until I died.  I was given this urge to write this story and this is where it came from.  I was led to write this book.  The Holy Spirit led and sometimes pushed me all the way through. To God by the glory.”

Once she started the words came easily, Pearson said.

“I started writing the book in mid August last year and I wrote the final word on Thanksgiving Day,” said Pearson. “Of course that was just the rough draft and we had to go through the editing process.  It was finally ready to go to print this July.”

Pearson is a widow and has two grown sons, Eric and Cleve, and is also a grandmother.

Pearson said she has no formal training as a writer but did “tinker around” writing many years ago.

“I jotted things down, sort of like a blog before anybody knew what a blog was,” she said. “I called it ‘my world as I see it.” I basically wrote about childhood memories.”

Pearson said the experience of holding her book is rewarding to her but she also hopes it serves as motivation for other retirees her age who might be struggling with a new direction in life.

“It’s been quite and experience and I’m proud of what I accomplished,” said Pearson. “I found something in me that guess I didn’t know was there. I hope others my age might find some inspiration from this.”

Pearson said she knew a vague beginning to her book but once she started her creative side took over.

“I didn’t know the complete story from start to finish,” Pearson said. “I knew what I wanted to do with the first few chapters but then as I got deeper into the book it just came to me. One night I couldn’t sleep until I got up and deleted a couple of pages I had written. It was that kind of experience.”

The book is about a troubled young girl named Maggie who Pearson said had a childhood far different from her own.

“The biggest problem I had was keeping Maggie in character,” said Pearson.  “I had a blessed childhood and I was writing about a child who was abused, ignored and whose needs were never met. And then later on that caused her to be such a closed-in person … which I am not.”

Pearson said the book is not based on any event or any person she has ever known but noted that she did use a few stories from her friends about their own childhood.

“I guess you could say it is a collaboration of some of the stories I’ve heard,” said Pearson.  “I’ve read a lot and watched a lot of Dr. Phil – about the impact that childhood has on us as adults.  Maggie was just a compacted version of all this.  She got the full load, poor child.”

Pearson said she has heard authors talk about fictional characters ‘coming-to-life’ on the pages of a book and said she didn’t believe that until her writing experience was completed.

“Maggie is real to me, she really is,” said Pearson.  “There was a time in my life when I would have liked to adopt a little girl 10 or 12 years old just to love her.  Maybe Maggie is that little girl.  She is just a poor little girl that you want to hug.  These weren’t just words on a page to me. The world is full of kids like Maggie.”

Now that she is published author Pearson is certainly not resting on her laurels.

“I have started my second book,” she said, “and I think it has more of my personality and more about experiences I’ve had in my own life.  I also have plans to write  a couple of mysteries too.”

Pearson said she is counting on good genetics to enhance her now-thriving writing career.

I’ve got the two mysteries book already written right up here,” Pearson said pointing to her head.“My great-grandma lived to be 92 so I plan on being like her so I can continue my new writing career.”

Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News