Breese City Council approves 12th Street TIF inducement
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- Written by: Bryan Hunt - Breese Journal Editor
Breese aldermen approved a tax increment financing inducement for the 12th Street Redevelopment Project Area at their Jan. 4 meeting.
Last week's meeting, the first of the new year, was held using Zoom videoconference due to the increase in COVID-19 cases of late.
Shelly Schadegg, the city's business administrator, explained that Sam Ramadan has signed an inducement to potentially induce the TIF "for potential development in the future."
Ramadan is the owner of Triple Crown Developments of Fairview Heights and the Farm Fresh Market in Breese.
No details were given on any potential development for that area, which includes two parcels of land straddling the 12th Street extension, approximately 11.92 acres and used now for commercial agriculture.
In other news, Alderman Bob Berndsen noted city crews were busy the New Year's weekend with a pair of water main leaks, one at Walnut Street and South Broadway and a second, smaller leak half a block away.
Electric Department employees had been removing Christmas decorations along Main Street.
Berndsen also noted city crews have been taking down Christmas decorations at North Side Park.
Public Works manager Don Voss said the department's next project will be getting "Welcome to Breese" signs erected.
Voss said city water samples that were tested on Jan. 3 came back with a satisfactory result, "so that's all good."
In public safety news, Police Chief Mark Berndsen told the council about an attempted break-in at Revermann's Shell, but nothing was gained.
Berndsen said anyone with information about this incident should call the police department at (618) 526-7226.
Health concerns
Mayor Kevin Timmermann noted the COVID-19 positivity numbers from the Clinton County Health Department, following recent testing.
Of 610 people who were tested, there were 218 positive results, which relates to a 37% positivity rate, he said.
He noted the health department ran out of the rapid COVID-19 tests they had and were pushing to get more.
The health department closed their weekly rapid COVID-19 test site, at the Clinton County Fairgrounds, until they can get more of the BinaxNOW rapid test kits.
"You're right Bryan, this is real," Timmermann said, referring to Alderman Bryan Eversgerd's earlier comment that COVID-19 is real.
Fair queen Essenpreis gets state send-off
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- Written by: Bryan Hunt - Breese Journal Editor
Family and friends attended a Sunday send-off for Clinton County Fair Queen Mia Essenpreis, 19, of Breese, who's competing in the Miss Illinois Fair Queen Pageant.
Essenpreis will be among the 72 young women competing to wear the crown as the state's next county fair queen. That pageant begins today and ends on Sunday.
This past Sunday's gathering was at Traditions Portrait Design in downtown Carlyle.
The pageant starts today and runs through Sunday at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield.
The board of directors of the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs voted to cancel last year's 2021 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant, due to some counties canceling their fairs and pageants out of COVID-19 health concerns. Miss Illinois County Fair queen Kelsi Kessler, of Carmi, who retained her title, will crown her successor come Sunday.
Mia is the daughter of Michelle and Bart Essenpreis.
Early departure
Lori (Kuhl) Jansen, Clinton County’s fair queen pageant director, said Sunday they would head to Springfield on Wednesday to get ready for the Thursday opening, a day starting with an 11 a.m. check-in.
Essenpreis will have her interview on Friday and preliminaries take place Saturday starting at 1 p.m. She is number 11 of the 72 contestants this year.
Lady Cougars have dominant ending in upset over Civic Memorial
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- Written by: Jeremy Chawgo - Breese Journal Sports Editor
The Central Lady Cougars’ up-and-down season reached their highest with a 55-44 upset win over State-ranked Civic Memorial on Saturday night at the Jansen Chevrolet PAWS Shootout at Stan Eagleson Gymnasium.
Civic Memorial came into the contest with a 15-2 record after starting the season with 13-straight wins.
The Lady Eagles led throughout much of the first three quarters of the contest until the Cougars scored 30 of the final 35 points to win the game with strong defense and a couple big shots from Reaghan Tebbe.
“I told them in the locker room that this is not the end, this is the beginning,” said Central head coach Nate Rueter. “We saw today what a lot of us thought that we were capable of. That was a very high quality team that we just went toe-to-toe with.”
On a night the Cougars honored Dennis Rakers’ back-to-back-to-back Sectional title teams from the beginning of the century, the current team showed their ability.
Senior Madelyn Santel and sophomore Kaydence Schroeder each dropped in 3-pointers to give the Cougars a 6-0 lead with CM calling a timeout just 40 seconds into the contest.
The Lady Eagles got hot after the timeout, hitting four 3-pointers down the stretch in the quarter with both Kelbie Zupan and Aubree Wallace dropping in two of those 3-pointers to give CM a 19-14 lead after the first quarter.
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