Breese Council votes to rename city park
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- Written by: Bryan Hunt - Breese Journal Editor
The Breese City Council approved the renaming of the city's Southside Park as Miners' Park at its regular meeting on May 3.
Alderman Bill Fischer, who heads the city's recreation committee, said the city's parks board gave their blessing for the move.
The council voted 6-1 in favor of the request, the lone no vote coming from Alderman Bryan Eversgerd.
No time frame for the pending name change was given.
Council members took the renaming request under advisement at its April 5 meeting.
That request came from Janice Beckemeyer, president of the Breese Historical Society.
"By naming it Miners' Park we would be honoring all those who worked in our mines, and reconnecting with those who worked so hard in the past to build our community," Beckemeyer said.
The Breese Park Board met on April 27 at City Hall to discuss the renaming of the park.
Fischer said, at that meeting, there was one person who wasn't sure if they wanted to go along with that.
That same evening, the Breese Historical Society met at the Breese Activity Center to discuss that same issue as well as the miners' monument that would be established at the park.
The request and park renaming would go toward honoring the city's long history of coal mining.
At one time there were three coal mines in Breese: the Breese Mining Co.'s West Mine, East Mine and North Mine.
The society is also in the process of completing a miners' monument that would go in front of the pavilion at the park.
On Dec. 22, 1906, Breese experienced a horrible mining accident, Beckemeyer told the council.
On that date, six miners — Walter Schaffner, Henry Middeke, Herman Holtmann, Herman Schleper, Frank Zehrer and August Foppe — died when the cage which was taking them to work fell into a sump at the bottom of the East Mine's shaft.
The monument the society is completing will honor the six men who died that day, "But it's also to honor all miners that worked in these mines."
The location of the monument is intentional, Beckemeyer said.
"It was the site of the east mine in which the accident took place in 1906," she said.
Beckemeyer said Southside Park is built on the site of the main shaft of that mine.
The monument will list the names and ages of those miners who tragically died. 
Building news
The council unanimously passed several ordinances that were related to buildings.
Four other ordinances involved Classic Storage LLC of Breese and owner A.G. Becker.
Classic Storage has climate-controlled storage facilities in Breese, Beckemeyer and Carlyle.
They included a finding of fact and conclusions for a special-use permit, the special-use permit, findings of fact and conclusions for a zoning variance, and the variance itself.
IDOT, Bureau of Mines working on mine collapse, road sag on Illinois 161 near Albers
A 15-inch drop in a section of Illinois Route 161 between Albers and New Baden is being attributed to mine subsidence.
This problem area is just before the curve complex between Haselhorst and Billhartz roads. The subsidence comes from the former Monterey Coal Mine No. 2 under that area.
Joe Monroe, District 8 operations engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation, confirmed that in a phone call Tuesday afternoon.
He did say that there was a plan in place to bring the roadway back up to its previous level, and IDOT is working with the Illinois Bureau of Mines and Minerals, a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, on the problem.
Also involved is ExxonMobil Coal and its consulting engineering firm.
Monroe said IDOT was notified of the problem on May 4. IDOT has posted additional yellow caution signs warning motorists to watch for water on the roadway, and about the patch of rough road, that being the depressed section of the roadway.
The drop in the roadway is noticeable for both east and westbound drivers as they enter the east curve of the complex.
The Monterey Coal Co. (Monterey) operated the No. 2 Mine in Clinton County, near Albers, from April 1977 until August 1996. The operations included coal extraction, coal processing and coal slurry and refuse (mine waste) disposal.
The entire No. 2. Mine site occupies approximately 1,400 acres of land, with the waste piles comprising about 300 acres of the total, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
The No. 2 mine was operated as an underground coal mining facility under permits issued by the Office of Mines and Minerals of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
There is only one residence in that immediate area, on the north side of Illinois 161 at the curve closest to Haselhorst Road.
A drive through the area Sunday afternoon found water pooling in a farm field to the north near the roadway and along the roadway's south drainage ditch.
A news report states IDNR officials believe it will take two to three months for that subsidence to end in that area.
In the meantime, surveys of the area will continue as will minor repairs of the roadway to bolster public safety.
Hustedde walks off Mater Dei’s 4-3 win over Central
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- Written by: Jeremy Chawgo - Breese Journal Sports Editor
The Mater Dei Knights baseball team has had an up and down season this spring with their high water mark coming on Monday with a walkoff win with rival and state-ranked Central in Breese.
The Knights also dropped a road test against Father McGivney on Saturday in Alton. The Griffins are also state ranked and both them and Central will be in next week’s Class 2A Central Regional with the Knights who are now 9-14 on the season.
Mater Dei will host Mascoutah on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. and play at Mt. Vernon on Saturday.
Mater Dei will begin postseason play at Central against Hillsboro on Monday, May 16.
The Cougars had a strong week of competition with wins over state-ranked Freeburg and North Clay before falling to the Knights on Monday.
The Cougars are now 25-4 on the season and still ranked as the top Class 2A team in the state.
They will host a talented Class 3A O’Fallon on Thursday before playing at Wood River on Saturday. They will wrap up regular-season action when they take on Rochester at Busch Stadium on Monday, May 16.
Mater Dei 4, Central 3 (8 innings): Both teams had comebacks in the Knights’ walkoff win over their rival Cougars on Monday in Breese.
Central outhit the Knights 6-4 on the afternoon with Mater Dei committing two fielding errors.
The Cougars’ top of their order went 0-for-14 while their bottom of the order was 0-for-8.
Meanwhile, Mater Dei senior Cam Haag sparked Mater Dei with a leadoff homer in the first inning and later walked and scored from the leadoff spot.
After Haag got things going with a solo homer to left-center field, Mater Dei doubled their lead to 2-0 when Haag walked and scored in the third inning.
Central got on the board in the fourth inning when Chase Lewis singled and Hunter Sample doubled to the gap. Jonathan Husmann chased home Lewis with a sacrifice lead to trail 2-1.
The Cougars took the lead in the sixth inning on back-to-back homers from Lewis and Sample to take a 3-2 lead, chasing MD starter Landon Albers.
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