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GREENE PRAIRIE PRESS

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)(%58$5< – Vol. 151, No. 7 – &DUUROOWRQ ,OOLQRLV

INSIDE NEWS Quilt show to benefit Garden Club. See page B5

LOCALS

Welcome, baby Brynn. See page A3

SPORTS

Lady Spartans lose to Lady Saukees, 48-35. See page A6

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WEEKEND WEATHER FRIDAY, FEB. 14

Roodhouse store closes for remodeling By CARMEN ENSINGER Greene Prairie Press Customers looking to buy bread or milk at Hamden’s (formerly Meehan’s) in Roodhouse were met with a sign on the door recently saying the grocery store is “closed for remodeling.� While that might be the case, according to Roodhouse Mayor Tommy Martin, the utilities to the building were shut off recently for non-payment. “I think it is struggling right now trying to keep the store going,� Martin said. “I don’t know how (the owner) is going to do it, but he is trying. I think he said he had some financing coming to help him out. I know we would hate to see him close and lose the store.� Martin said the store is owned and operated by Frank Egee, who

purchased the store in April of 2019 independent grocer to succeed. “It’s a tough business to succeed in from Tom and Karen Meehan who had owned the store for many, many years. because your little guy doesn’t have “When they decided to retire, we the buying power of the big chain stores,� he said. were glad to see “Like Meehan’s someone come “It’s a tough business might order 10 in and keep cases of lettuce the store open to succeed in because because we need and Walmart can a store here in your little guy doesn’t order 10 semi R o o d h o u s e , � have the buying power loads, and they get Martin said. “It a better price. It’s is so convenient of the big chain stores.� just hard for the to be able to run little guy to comdown and buy a pete in any busiTommy Martin gallon of milk ness these days.� Roodhouse Mayor or a jar of peaMartin said, however, that he nut butter and not have to run to White Hall or is thinking about turning the utilities Jacksonville for it.� back on for a few days since the temMartin said the big chain stores perature is supposed to dip below zero have made it almost impossible for the over the next few days.

“I need to talk to our city guys and see what they think about it, but I’m thinking about turning the electric back on for three or four days because it is supposed to get nine below zero the next couple days,� he said. “I don’t want all the water pipes in there to freeze up and burst.� Roodhouse owns their own electric utility, so they have the option to restore power whenever it is necessary, and Martin sees the next few days as necessitating power. “I have to contact him before we do it because we don’t want to turn the power back on and him maybe have some heaters going and it start a fire,� he said. Egee could not be reached for comment. There is no phone number on file, other than the store phone, with the city.

NG’s Unified Basketball team celebrates three years of success By CARMEN ENSINGER Greene Prairie Press North Greene High School has provided their intellectually disabled (ID) students the opportunity to play basketball through the IHSA sanctioned Special Olympics Unified Basketball program since the program was first introduced by the IHSA three years ago. Last week they held a blue and white scrimmage game before the North Greene girls game against Greenfield and also held Senior Recognition for both the ID students on the team and their unified partners who were seniors. Athletic Director Brett Berry said he knew the program was a good fit for North Greene the minute the email came to him from the IHSA. “They released an email trying to push unified sports where they include Special Olympic athletes with unified partners,� Berry said. “What got us interested in it is that we have several kids in our ID classroom that were wanting to help out with basketball and wanting to play on the team and just wanting to be involved. “The email kind of gave us the idea that this was something we could put together to try and get these kids

involved as well as raise awareness of some of the things Special Olympics can do for the other kids in our school.� The program allows for three ID students on the court along with two unified partners. The unified partners receive as much from the program as the ID students. “Its great for our unified partners because it shows potential colleges that the partner possesses leadership qualities,� Berry said. “It also shows them their ability to work with others and the ability to give back to others on a volunteer basis.� The team practices once a week and the cheerleaders also stepped up and formed a cheerleading team with girls interested in learning to cheer. “Some of our cheerleaders have taken some of the girls in the ID class and gotten them uniforms and taught them cheers,� Berry said. “They come along and cheer right along with the basketball team.� Berry said it has been an outstanding program, and the kids in the school really understand and respect the special athletes and what they are going through and work so well with them. “We are a full inclusion school (See, UNIFIED, A2)

Carmen Ensinger/Greene Prairie Press

Devin Dean, alongside his parents, Kathy Kleidon and Jim Dean, holds the trophy his team was awarded for winning the Unified Basketball game last week. Each senior player and Unified Partner were introduced after the game.

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Carrollton School Board approves applying for grant By CARMEN ENSINGER Greene Prairie Press The Carrollton School Board convened a special school board meeting on Monday, Jan. 3 to apply for a 50/50 matching grant from the state to make improvements at the grade school. The grant is due at the Regional Office of Education on Feb. 14. The district can apply for up to $50,000 but must also match those funds with $50,000 of their own funds. The FY 2020 Round 1 School Maintenance Project Grant is making available approximately $44 million dollars to school districts throughout the state. With a maximum amount of $50,000 and 852 school districts in the state, every school district who submits for the grant should be approved. If every school in the state

received the grant the total amount would be only $43,600,000. “Our architect has finalized the abatement for the grade school for any visible asbestos still in the 60’s wing,� Superintendent Mark Halwachs said. “We talked to the company that does abatement, and they thought the abatement would come in at approximately $70,000. That is not putting in the new floor or other contingencies. The architect thinks it might come in around $100,000 to $120,000 depending on the bids.� The project would include removing the asbestos in the floors and ceilings and replacing them with a new floor and ceiling. “Hopefully the company that did the abatement over the Christmas break will bid on this project,� Halwachs said. “That abatement came in cheaper than they thought, so hope-

fully they will get this bid as well and have time to do it over the summer.� In looking ahead to the future, Halwach said that if the State released another construction grant that some issues at the high school could be addressed including a new generator, old boiler and possibly abate some of the asbestos in the hallways upstairs. The generator is needed for the basement in case the power goes off to run the pumps. “The water table is so high that if the power goes off and the pumps go out it builds up,� Halwachs said. “We came up with a plan with CTS and have been keeping it dry for now. One of the pipe-fitters working down there said it is pretty humid and we need a commercial grade dehumidifier. It feels like a rainforest down there.� The boiler needs replaced, and once the new boiler is installed, the

old boiler would be used as a redundant boiler. Halwach said they will probably get this year out of the current boiler and maybe next, but it really needs replaced. A discussion was held about passes to sporting events. Former school board members and teachers have a passes for themselves and their spouses to get into all regular season sporting events. These passes, however, do not include their children or any other family member or friend. Apparently, during the Lady Hawk Tournament, there were some who refused to pay for the family members that came with them to the tournament. Money from gate sales help to fund the sports programs, so the board is going to look at stricter guidelines to apply to the passes to stop abuse of the system.

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Greenfield Library collecting items for local food pantry By CARMEN ENSINGER Greene Prairie Press

E

ven in a country as advanced as the United States, there are still those that go hungry. Fortunately, local individuals and groups still fight to remedy this.

Carmen Ensinger/Greene Prairie Press

And the winner is‌ Nash Klingler draws out a winning ticket Friday night near the end of the varsity game pitting the Carrollton Hawks against the West Central Cougars. There were four games that night along with a spaghetti dinner, bake sale and basket raffle to raise funds for the Hawk and Lady Hawk athletics and the cheerleaders.

The Greenfield Public Library has decided to hold a collection drive for needed items from now through Feb. 29. There are many young families who live paycheck to paycheck and the elderly who must choose between buying their medicine this month or food. These are the people that benefit most from local food pantries, but food pantries offer so much more than just food. They also try to provide hygiene items, which makes sense because if a family doesn’t have the money to buy food, then they aren’t going to have the money to buy basic hygiene items such as deodorant and soap. That’s why the library chose to focus on these items., especially. “We’re focusing our drive on hygiene products (See, LIBRARY, A2)

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