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.
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.
They are calling it “Undivided,” and it is open to everyone. It is a night of community worship and ministry in Southern Illinois.
Jon Walker is the organizer and had the vision for this event from the beginning. The hope is that Undivided will bring people from different churches and with different backgrounds together for a great night of worship.
“I hope that fostering unity will eventually bring about ministry and reaching this community as one body of Christ. So we are collecting food for a local food pantry and we will be doing similar charity work with every event we put on,” Walker said.
An added feature of the event is that they are collecting food for the Benton Ministerial Alliance at the event. Bringing the community together and serving others by collecting food – some would say that Whittington Church does that very well.
The event starts with refreshments at 6 p.m., followed by the service at 7 p.m. Whittington Baptist Church is located at 200 W. Main St. in Whittington, IL.
— Tammy Head
A well-known Benton family needs your help.
David Tedrow was recently diagnosed with a rare form of thyroid cancer and is receiving aggressive treatment in St. Louis five days per week.
On Saturday, Dec. 1 friends of David and April Tedrow are sponsoring a fundraiser to help defray the costs of the ongoing medical treatment and travel. A rummage sale, auction, raffle and fish fry will be held at the Benton Kiwanis Hall located on Hudelson Street, adjacent to the Benton Civic Center. All proceeds from the event will go to the Tedrow family.
Currently, items for the rummage sale and auction are being collected and can be dropped off at the Whittington Water Department or at Martin’s Restaurant & Catering, located on East Main Street in Benton. Anybody wanting to purchase or help sell tickets for the fish fry or needing more information can contact Dale and Penny Brookins at 927-1960 or Bob and Linda Martin at 927-2627.
By Jim Muir
The Benton Rangerettes picked up a hard-fought 58-53 victory over Vienna Tuesday night in second round play at the Marion Lady Wildcats Invitational.
First year coach Andy Sloan said he was pleased with the overall performance in the season opener.
“I think there was a lot of nerves out there tonight from the girls and myself,” said Sloan following his first win. “At times it wasn’t pretty but I thought we worked hard and showed some character to come back and get the win after we gave up the lead.”
The game was also a typical early season match up with turnovers and fouls at a premium for both squads. In all both teams combined to shoot 72 free throws in the game with Benton hitting 32-43 (74 percent) and Vienna connecting on 18-29 (62 percent).
The game was a virtual roller-coaster with Vienna, the defending champ in the tournament, jumping out to a an early lead only to have Benton roar back and take a 16-14 lead at the first quarter break. The first quarter Benton surge was keyed by junior Sami Minor who came off the bench with five points in the initial stanza.
Benton upped the lead to nine points in the second quarter and took a 26-19 lead into the halftime intermission. But it was all Vienna in the third quarter as they outscored Benton 22-14 to erase the halftime deficit and take a 41-40 lead into the fourth quarter. The Vienna rally was orchestrated by the play of junior Miranda Chance and senior Carley Childress who combined to score 20 of the 22 third quarter points.
“Vienna is a good team and they are well coached,” said Sloan. “We told the girls at halftime that they would come back and they did. But, we kept our composure down the stretch and it was a nice win for us.”
While Childress and Chance combined for 44 of the 53 Vienna points the Rangerettes had a balanced attack led by Morgan Corn with 12 points and Makala Carney with 10. Also near double figures for the Rangerettes was Rowdee Sanders and Evelyn Mendez with nine points each and Sami Minor and Cali Carney with eight each. Freshmen Marcela Mendez added two points in her first varsity game.
“We’ve got to have balanced scoring if we are going to be successful,” said Sloan. “We don’t have that one girl that can come out and get 25 every night so I’m happy with the scoring attack we had tonight.”
The Marion girl’s tournament has been a six-team affair for many years but Eldorado dropped out this year and a replacement couldn’t be found so this year’s event is a five-team round-robin with each team getting one night off. In action on Monday Marion defeated Vienna 52-46 and knocked off Carterville by a scored of 60-55. The Rangerettes had the bye on Monday night. Following the Benton win on Tuesday Carterville pulled off the win against the host Lady Wildcats in the nightcap with a 41-31 victory. After two nights of play Benton and Herrin are both 1-0 with Marion and Carterville at 1-1 and Vienna is 0-2.
The tournament will be idle on Wednesday night with action resuming on Thursday with Vienna and Carterville meeting in the 6 p.m contest and Benton and Herrin facing off in the 7:30 p.m match up. With Benton and Herrin both at 1-0 the winner of that game on Thursday will be the only team left in the tournament with an unblemished record heading into weekend play. On Friday night it will be Carterville and Benton meeting at 6 p.m followed by Herrin and Marion at 7:30 p.m.
The tournament will conclude on Saturday with Vienna and Herrin meeting at 11 a.m and Benton meeting Marion in the finale at 12:30 p.m.
All the Benton games will be broadcast on WQRL.
Benton 16 10 14 18 — 58
Vienna 14 5 22 12 — 53
BENTON (58): C. Carney 2 6-10 10, Minor 3 2-4 8, Sanders 1 7-8 9, M. Carney 3 2-4 8, Corn 1 10-12 12,, E. Mendez 2 5-5 9, M. Mendez 1 0-0 2. Totals: 13 32-43 58.
VIENNA (53): Ross 1 2-2 4, Keeling 1 0-2 2, Chance 5 9-10 20, Edwards 1 0-0 2, Childress 8 6-11 24, McKibben 0 1-4 1,. Totals: 16 18-29 53.
By Jim Muir
The Benton Middle School Junior Rangers improved to 5-1 on the young season with a solid 57-37 road victory at Harrisburg Tuesday night.
The Junior Rangers outscored Harrisburg 17-3 in the second quarter to break open a tight game and cruise to its second win in as many nights. BMS knocked off Carmi-White County on Monday night by a score of 44-35.
BMS coach John Cook, center, gives instruction to his team during a timeout at Harrisburg Tuesday night. The Junior Rangers notched a 57-37 victory to move to 5-1 on the season.
In last night’s action Harrisburg led 13-12 after one quarter but Benton ratcheted up the defense in the second quarter and rolled to a 29-16 halftime score en route to the Big 7 Conference victory.
“We made some defensive adjustments between quarters and took away some of their outside shooting,” said Cook. “It was a nice win for us on the road.”
The BMS squad could take on the handle of ‘road warriors’ with the sterling 5-1 record coming without ever playing a home game, a point that Cook said speaks volumes about his team.
“I’m thrilled with where we are at right now,” said Cook. “This is a very unselfish group of kids.”
Derek Oxford turned in a double-double with 29 points and 10 rebounds to go along with three assists and a pair of steals and Austin Wills also hit double figures with 12 points and also grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists.
Cook gave high marks for the play of Oxford and Wills.
“They are as good as any guard tandem you will see in junior high in Southern Illinois,” said Cook. “They do a good job of spotting up for a shot and also do a good job of finding their own shots. They can both grab a rebound and take it up the court and they really play off each other very well.”
Rounding out the scoring for BMS was Tyson Houghland with seven, Gehrig Wynn with five, Brett Bonenburger and Jordan Richey with two each. Also seeing action in the win was Oliver Davis, Scott Mosley, Blane Pankey, Hamilton Page, Parker Williams, Lance Cockrum, Tony Tillman and Jourdan Garbo.
In the seventh grade game Benton also notched a victory to remain undefeated at 3-0 with a 39-26 victory over Harrisburg. The seventh grade team, coached by Andy Davis, trailed 18-16 at halftime but outscored Harrisburg 13-1 in the decisive third quarter to cruise to the victory Leading the way for Benton was Hamilton Page with eight points, followed by Parker Williams with seven, Gehrig Wynn with five, Brett Bonenburger and Mason Wills with four each. Joey Craig added three points and Eldon Owens and Blane Pankey each chipped in two points.
– 0 —
The Benton Middle School eighth grade team picked up a hard-fought 44-35 road victory on Monday night against Carmi-White County.
The Junior Rangers trailed 12-8 at the end of one quarter and 22-20 at halftime but put together a big third quarter outscoring the Bulldogs 16-4 to take a 36-26 lead after three quarters.
Benton coach John Cook said Carmi’s game plan was to shut down the Junior Rangers leading scorer Derek Oxford, who saw double and triple teams throughout the contest. Oxford scored six points and also pulled down a game high seven rebounds.
Road Warriors – BMS eighth grade basketball team picked up another road win Tuesday night defeating Harrisburg 57-37 to improve to 5-1 – with all six games on the road. The Junior Rangers will be at home for the first time on Nov. 19 when they host Marion in a key conference battle.
“It’s not a secret that Derek (Oxford) and Austin Wills are the guys we look to go to,” said Cook. “But, we’ve got other kids that can step up which is the mark of a good team.”
Wills led Benton with 16 points and Tyson Houghland had a solid all-around game with 10 points, four rebounds, two steals and one assist.
Rounding out the Benton scoring in the game against Carmi-White County was Oliver Davis and Gehrig Wynn with five points each, and Blane Pankey with two points.
In the seventh grade contest BMS defeated Carmi-White County 36-26, jumping out to a 12-2 first quarter lead and extending it to 20-6 at the intermission.
Andy Davis’ seventh grade squad was led in scoring by Hamilton Page with 12 points followed by Brett Bonenburger and Gehrig Wynn with six points each. Bonenburger also had three rebounds, three steals and one assist while Wynn had three steals and three assists. Parker Williams turned in a solid all-around game with four points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists. Also scoring was Drew Owens and Mason Wills with four each and Joey Craig with two points.
The Benton Middle School seventh and eighth grade teams will finally get to play in front of a home crowd when they host Marion on Monday, Nov. 19.
Benton Police have arrested two suspects in a burglary on Aiken Street.
On Nov. 8, police were called about a burglary in progress in the 400 block of Aiken Street in Benton.
After an investigation, Nathaniel S. Casey, 24, and Cory D. Payne, 23, both of Benton were arrested. Both men are charged with burglary and theft. Casey is also charged with unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.
Both men were booked at the Franklin County Jail.
Benton Police also announced the following enforcement actions over the weekend:
Paulie J. Potts, 31, of Benton was arrested Nov. 10 on an active Franklin County warrant for failure to appear. Potts was charged and transported to the Franklin County Jail for further processing.
On Nov. 11, Benton Police were dispatched to the 1400 block of Della Street in reference to a noise complaint. Through investigation, police cited three suspects for unlawful consumption of alcohol by a minor. They were identified as Connor L. Babington, 19, Dakota L. Tucker, 19, and Lacy J. DePasquale, 19, all of Benton. All suspects were issued a citation and a notice to appear.
Timothy A. Topolski, 42, of Benton was arrested Nov. 13 on an active Pulaski county warrant for failure to appear. Topolski was arrested and transported to the Franklin County Jail for further processing.
‘Obscene’ – that is the word that comes to mind when I see the amount of money being spent on elections nationwide, but particularly in our area.
I want to emphasize that this is not a political endorsement for either party, instead it’s just food for though here on Election Day Eve.
Dodging the mud and outright BS that is being slung, and fending off the lies and distortions that are being told via television, radio, newspapers, websites and I’m certain carrier pigeon and smoke signal these days, I ran across an article about spending in this year’s general election that caught my attention. Along with a kicked-in-the-gut feeling, the article brought to mind an interview I had last week on my weekly radio show, “Sound Off” – that airs each Wednesday night from 8 to 10 p.m. on WQRL (106.3 and wqrlradio.com online). And … yes … that was an unabashed plug.
Let me explain.
During the show I interviewed Mary Abbott, who is the Southern Regional Director for the Illinois Hunger Coalition and also serves on Governor Pat Quinn’s Commission to End Hunger. Abbott doesn’t mince words and laid out in black-and-white just how bad the situation is here in Southern Illinois. Abbott also emphasized that the situation is much worse than it is being portrayed in many of the political commercials that are airing virtually non-stop.
Abbott, by her own admission, is “in the trenches” and sees firsthand the dire circumstances of poverty, unemployment and hopelessness that has engulfed many people right here in our backyard in Southern Illinois.
While I could devote this entire offering to those numbers let me just share a few with you.
In Franklin County unemployment is 12.8 percent – highest in the state. But, Abbott said that number is far too low because it does not take into account those who have fallen through the cracks or those who have just quit trying. In her estimation the true unemployment number is “in the ballpark of 15 percent.” Or, nearly twice the national average. Along with being an embarrassment, that number is also unacceptable.
While it has been labeled a national disgrace that 1-in-6 people (16.4 percent) across the United States are now receiving food stamps that number pales in comparison to those using food stamps in the two biggest counties in the 59th State Senate District and two of the largest counties in the 112th Congressional District. According to Abbott 1-in-4 people (25 percent) in Franklin County and 1-in-5 (20 percent) in Williamson County receive food stamps. Based on actual numbers 10,183 people in Franklin County (population 39,627) and 13,000 in Williamson County (population 66,622) receive monthly food stamps and medical help.
Abbott also said that according to projections 2,500 more people will be added to the food stamp list next year in Franklin County, pushing the number to more than 13,000 in the county. Based on the population that is 1-in-3 or 33 percent. Again, that’s embarrassing and unacceptable.
Abbott said is is also common for 50-70 percent of schoolchildren in many Southern Illinois counties to receive two meals a day at school as part of the free lunch program, provided for families that live in below-poverty level households. My first thought was that a school calendar is 182 … so where do these kids eat the other 183 days?
With that list of numbers seared in your mind I want to share another contrasting set of numbers with you.
According to the Sunlight Foundation during the current election cycle there has been more than $7.3 million dollars spent on the 12th Congressional race between Republican Jason Plummer and Democrat Bill Enyart. Those two, as I’m sure you know, are vying for the seat being vacated by Congressman Jerry Costello. And most observers, both Republican and Democrat, would agree that this race is perhaps one of the ugliest, most negative and just plain disgusting election races … ever. Again, the number to keep in mind is $7.3 million.
And in the 59th Senate race between incumbent state Sen. Gary Forby, (D-Benton) and Republican challenger Mark Minor, also of Benton, it was reported more than a week ago that in excess of $1.1 million dollars – with the vast majority being spent by Forby – had been spent in the state senate race. Again, the number is $1.1 million.
OK, let’s compare those numbers.
On one hand we have people, and many of them children, hurting, struggling, unemployed and according to Abbott out of hope. And on the other hand we have political parties and deep-pocketed political action committees throwing fistfuls of money at a candidate or candidates right here in the middle of all that poverty and misery. In both races, again right here where the food stamp lists are growing and the food pantries are fighting to keep up, there will be more than $8.5 million spent to elect two candidates. After writing that last paragraph I feel like I need to take a shower.
I plan to trudge off to the polls tomorrow and vote my beliefs and my conscience regardless of party affiliation and I hope you will too. But, I will also take with me to the voting booth tomorrow the knowledge that these contrasting numbers are a sad, and nauseating reality that our political system is broken, perhaps beyond repair.
