The intersection of Old U.S. Route 50 and Germantown Road was flooded Monday morning after Breese and surrounding areas received an unprecedented amount of rain. A downpour Monday morning left some streets and roads in Clinton County barely passable in spots, a trend which continued into the afternoon for some of those locations, though water had run off a good number of those spots.
The thunderstorm dumped anywhere from 5.5 to 7.5 inches of rainfall on the region, according to the National Weather Service in St. Louis.
A number of flash flood warnings had been issued starting at 7:48 a.m. Monday and remained in effect until 10:30 a.m. that day.
Then at 4:48 p.m. Monday the service issued another flash flood warning for Clinton County, this time to remain in effect until 1:45 a.m. Tuesday. With more rain Tuesday morning, the service issued another flash flood warning at 8:22 a.m. which remained in effect until 9:45 a.m.
Their Doppler radar systems had estimated as much as 12 inches or more of rain fell across parts of the warned area, so floodwaters would take several more hours to recede. Areas expected to see flooding in Clinton County were Breese, Carlyle, Beckemeyer and St. Rose.
On Shattuc Road in Shattuc, Clinton County Highway Department personnel were dealing with water over the roadway leading to the CSX railroad crossing, prompting them to limit traffic to a single lane. The road was closed later to traffic in both directions.
The Illinois Department of Transportation sent two dump trucks to the area of Old U.S. Route 50 and Huey Road where water had pooled enough to where levels forced vehicles to crawl along the roadway, normally a 55-miles-per-hour zone coming into and out of Carlyle.
Another stretch of Old U.S. Route 50, in the 20000 block, was also covered with water, forcing vehicles to drive through one lane at a time, often using the center of the roadway. IDOT posted workers there with signage to slow motorists. Later in the day “water over roadway” signs had been set up in that area.
In Breese, police in the morning were forced to halt traffic as water flooded the intersection of Old U.S. Route 50 and Germantown Road. The water flowed to the storefront of Breese Motors, at the northeast corner of that intersection.
The National Weather Service in St. Louis had listed the levels at Carlyle Lake at 419.76 as of Monday, with a flood stage of 423.5 feet.
Locally, IDOT had closed the junction of Illinois routes 140 and 127 in Bond County on Sunday, as well as six closures around Madison County, due to flooding. A conditions map listed no closures in Clinton County.
Left: Dr. Esther Schulz, with SSM Health, discussed her “bible,” the Medical Review Officers’ Handbook, during Monday’s seminar. Right: Attorney Shari Rhode (left) fields a question from an employer regarding the discipline of employees in the workplace who might be suspected of being impaired. (Photos by Bryan Hunt) The South Central Illinois Growth Alliance hosted a seminar on Monday offering two perspectives — legal and medical — regarding marijuana in the workplace.
Illinois’ General Assembly, on May 31, became the 11th state to legalize the use of recreational marijuana and its sale to adults, by passing HB1438, which was signed into law June 25.
Marijuana will be legal in Illinois on Jan. 1, 2020 and adults age 21 and over will be able to purchase it.
Monday’s event drew 150 registrants, according to Cydney Richardson, Kaskaskia College’s coordinator of Industrial and Continuing Education, and was held in the Lifelong Learning Center on the school’s main campus in Centralia.
Guest speakers included attorney Shari Rhode of the Rhode Law Firm in Carbondale, explaining the legal ramifications, and Dr. Esther Schulz of SSM Health, a medical review officer, presenting a medical perspective with regard to drug testing.
Rhode said “There aren’t any regulations yet so I’m going just from the law as it’s drafted.”
She said while the act deals only with cannabis, if companies develop a drug policy that complies “with this act, you’ll be in a very good position as an employer.”
She said the new act will allow an employer to adopt a reasonable drug-free workplace policy … “But what you cannot do, under this act, is take a random drug act for the use of cannabis. It does not affect other kinds of drugs, but as employers, what are we most interested in? What’s going on in the workplace? How are the employees performing, or is there an issue?”
She said there is a Privacy in the Workplace Act in Illinois that needs to be considered. It provides “that an employer cannot take disciplinary action based on the lawful use of any product outside the workplace.”
Rhode said employers need to be consistently applying their drug-free policies that they have, “And if you don’t have policies you should consider creating them.”
She said the law allows employers to discipline, or discharge an employee who either is under the influence or in possession of cannabis in the workplace, “workplace” being on the job, driving a company vehicle, or being put on call for a job, “24 hours advance notice that you might be called in to work.”
And work-related means in the building, in the parking lot, on assignments, getting to and from work assignments — “That’s what it means to be ‘on the job’.”
The law provides an option to an employer, as long as you have a good-faith belief that the employee is under the influence.
Rhode said a reason to think someone is under the influence might be: a change in their speech; if their coordination or demeanor are unusual; unusual behaviors; disregard for safety for themselves or others.
If an employer believes an employee is under the influence of cannabis, they can take disciplinary action, “You can even test them,” Rhode said, but the problem with testing is nobody knows how long cannabis stays in a person’s system.
What does it mean for employers? You can test, Rhode said, if they have a good-faith belief of intoxication due to cannabis usage; what you can’t do is discipline because you’ve randomly decided an employee is under the influence.
Rhode said the law provides, for the employee’s perspective and the employer’s protection, if you have an employee believed to be under the influence of cannabis, “You have to give that employee an opportunity to contest that belief.”
That does two things: one, it lets the employee know, through policy or training, if they’re under the influence of marijuana, they will get the opportunity to contest it. From the employer’s standpoint, due to the good-faith belief defense, if you have an anti-drug policy in place, if you have a good-faith belief that one is under the influence, it gives one an opportunity to contest the accusation of intoxication and “that goes to prove you operate on a good-faith belief; you don’t just willy-nilly make a determination that you’re under, you’re not.”
Out at second — Bartelso shortstop Jordan Kreke puts the tag down on Trenton’s Paul Ritzheimer in the Barts’ 7-1 Championship Series win over the Miners on Sunday at Pete Schumacher Field. Backing up on the play is Bartelso second baseman Cody Bauza. (Photo by Jeremy Chawgo) The first game of the Clinton County League’s Championship was one sided as the top seeded Barts of Bartelso cruised to a 7-1 win over host Trenton on Sunday at Pete Schumacher Field.
The Barts will go for the sweep at home this Sunday with game two being a 9-inning affair. If Trenton wins game two, game three will be played following that game with seven innings deciding the title.
As for game one, Bartelso’s Tony Schaeffer battled through the heat to all but shut down the Trenton offense which managed just five hits.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the league for a reason,” said Trenton manager Tom Ritzheimer. “We had virtually no offense and we did play the field real well.”
Bartelso pounded out 13 hits and took advantage of four fielding errors from the Miners.
After wasting a leadoff double in the first inning, Bartelso went to work in the second inning against Trenton starter Ryan Meddows.
Schaeffer and Joel Zurliene each singled to start the second inning before a sacrifice bunt from Cody Bauza sent the runners into scoring position. Nolan Haake broke up the shutout with an RBI single to center to give the Barts a 1-0 lead.
Bartelso added three more runs in the top of the third inning after the first out was retired. Jason Cobb singled to left in front of a double from Kory Peppenhorst.
Schaeffer hit the gap for a 2-run double to score Cobb and Noah Crocker. Bauza added another tally with an RBI single up the middle as they led 4-0.
“We are getting hits up and down the lineup which is great to see,” said Bartelso manager Glenn Kohrmann. “The bottom of the order has been hot all season and our middle is starting to score runners.”
Bryce Harre singled to lead things off in the fourth inning for the Barts before he eventually scored on a fielding error to move the lead to 5-0.
Trenton finally got to Schaeffer in the bottom of the sixth inning. Jim Ritzheimer was hit by a pitch before scoring two hitters later on an RBI single from Paul Ritzheimer.
Bartelso added two unearned runs in the seventh inning when Zurliene reached on an error and Bauza was hit by a pitch.
Harre doubled in a run while Kurt Peppenhorst singled home another to give Bartelso a 7-1 lead.
“We just didn’t do much right today,” added Ritzheimer. “We know what we have to do next Sunday and that is play better defense and get our offense going.”
Schaeffer earned his third win in the postseason as he went eight innings and allowed one earned run on five hits, one walk and 10 punch outs. Seventy-one of his 103 pitches were strikes with 23 first-pitch strikes.
“Tony just battles each game and is a true gamer,” added Kohrmann. “He was ahead in the count all game and our defense played well behind him.”
Meddows was the losing pitcher as he went just three innings where he allowed four earned runs on nine hits, no walks and two strikeouts.
Kurt Peppenhorst led the Barts by going 2-for-4 with a single, a double and one run batted in. Schaeffer was also 2-for-4 with a single, a double, two runs scored, two batted in and one walk.
Cobb was 2-for-5 with a single and a double while Harre was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and one batted in. He had two singles and one double.
“We had eight spots in the lineup with hits and you have to like your chances when that happens,” added Kohrmann. “Bryce really had a good game for us and picked us up at the bottom of the order.”
Paul Ritzheimer had two of the Miners’ five hits as he ended the day 2-for-4 with two singles and one RBI. Kyle Eversgerd and Chase Klein each had a double.
“We have to figure out something on offense if we are going to have a chance to come back,” concluded Ritzheimer. “Tony is a tough pitcher and we know he will get the ball in game two.”
| Fri., Aug. 9 |
446.88 |
| Sun., Aug. 11 |
446.49 |
| Tues., Aug. 13 | 448.45 |
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| August 11 | .00" |
| August 12 | 3.93" |
| August 13 | 2.45" |
