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- Written by: Matt Wilson - Breese Journal Reporter
Findlay Reynolds, a 10-year-old Carlyle Junior High School fifth-grader, cleans a veteran's headstone with a soft brush. Photo by Matt Wilson A Carlyle Junior High School student is doing her part to ensure that every veteran is remembered.
Findlay Reynolds, a 10-year-old fifth-grader, has been cleaning veterans' headstones at both the Carlyle Cemetery and St. Mary's Cemetery in Carlyle.
"I did this because I wanted people to be remembered," Reynolds said. "They respected our country and I wanted to think that it would be good to clean their graves because that is a great thing."
Reynolds has been cleaning the headstones for around three months. She started on July 4.
"I didn't want to do anything else on July 4," Reynolds said. "I just wanted to stay and clean graves."
Reynolds said she came up with the idea because there is a lot of dirty graves and the families that might want to come by and visit them might not see their name and their face. Her grandpa, Owen, mows at the cemetery and she came out to see him one day and noticed all of the dirty headstones.
"I wanted to make them remembered again," Reynolds said.
Reynolds said she enjoys cleaning the headstones. Reynolds mom, Whitney, helps her clean the headstones.
They have cleaned around 50 to 60 headstones so far. She said her favorite so far has been Robert's grave.
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- Written by: Matt Wilson - Breese Journal Reporter
Nicole Borders, the general manager of Good Ole' Days Restaurant in New Baden, addressed safety concerns they have at the establishment during the Village of New Baden meeting on Monday, Oct. 5, at the New Baden Municipal building.
Borders said they are trying to work on more access for handicap parking. She knows that is an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) issue, but was wanting the board to work with her and IDOT to find a solution.
Borders also wanted to make the crosswalk more visible.
"Safety is our major issue right now," Borders said. "We are having a lot of issues with people not wanting to cross the street, especially elderly people. Our first and foremost worry right now is what we can do to up the safety for Good Ole' Days."
Mayor Bob Oster said there is nothing the board can do for Borders because it is a civil matter between Good Ole' Days and the owner of the old city hall and that has nothing to do with the board.
The issue stems from concerns over parking near Good Ole Days.
When the Village of New Baden owned the former village hall, it also owned the adjacent parking lot, which was shared by the village and Good Ole Days restaurant.
Since then, the village has sold the former village hall to a private owner. The parking lot is now under new ownership as well and has been taped off, eliminating the parking spaces that had previously been available to restaurant patrons.
Borders talked to the board about the crosswalk. She knows that the village painted the curbs yellow, so she was wondering if they could get yellow lines on the crosswalk.
"We just need something more presentable where people might stop," Borders said. "It was a shared parking for a very long time, and we were very grateful for that. Right now, we are just trying to find a way for the whole community to come out and visit, especially the elderly. That is our main goal right now."
Oster said he would talk with the public works director to see about painting the lines of the crosswalk. He said any issues with getting handicap parking would have to be between herself and IDOT because it is a state highway.
Randy Linthicum touched base with Oster about some concerns they had talked about a couple of months ago. He said the doors at the Civic Center still aren't open at 7:30 a.m. like they had agreed. Linthicum also agreed to purchase two flashing lights for crosswalks and wanted to proceed with that. Linthicum said he would do two full crosswalks on both sides. If the village would start enforcing the rules and making people stop at the flashing lights, Linthicum would entertain the idea of two more flashing lights. There are four flashing lights in town that aren't done.
