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- Written by: Matt Wilson - Breese Journal Reporter
JT Build in Breese has expanded its business to include Clinton County Roll-Off.A Breese multi-faceted general contracting company has expanded its business to include large waste containers.
John and Katie Tebbe, owners of JT Build, have started a second business out of their building called Clinton County Roll-Off. The new business venture will allow area residents the opportunity to rent a large waste container if needed.
They will be offering rental on 20-yard and 30-yard dumpsters.
John said the reason for starting the new business was because they were having trouble, especially toward the west side of Clinton County, finding a reliable roll-off company that wasn't a large corporation.
Katie said in the construction business they use a lot of dumpsters. They began to purchase their own dumpsters so they didn't have to wait or pay an extended distance fee.
"We realized that there was a void to fill," John said.
Katie said it is nice to offer a different type of service to the community. JT Build has been around for 13 years and they have gotten to know how to service, and Clinton County Roll-Off is a different type of service.
"This is a huge need in this area," Katie said. "There is really no other good option. It is exciting to bring this to the area."
They first went out and bought a few of their own dumpsters so they had options in terms of keeping them long term and also having one at the JT Build facility. They ended up buying a truck and thought they should offer the service to everyone.
The roll-offs could be used for people having house clean-outs, spring cleaning, or a small or large construction job.
"They can call here and get a local, small town business," John said. "Katie and I are really experienced in the service industry. I feel like we know how to service people, how to treat people right, and give a product that is useful to a consumer."
Clinton County Roll-Off will allow people to do business locally and when they order or need service they are talking to a person who lives in the community.
The dumpsters are 20 cubic yards and 30 cubic yards.
They have nine dumpsters and are looking to expand rapidly. Clinton County Roll-Off will deliver and pick up the dumpsters to and from the site.
They are going to offer a driveway protection where they put plywood down for an extra cost.
Dumpsters can be rented out for one week, and there will be fees for additional days after that week.
John said they would like to do business will all of his contracting friends and friends in the trades. There is an option for a business to have a continual contract for a weekly or a monthly dump.
They will have about a 50-mile radius to deliver and pick up dumpsters.
JT Build and Clinton County Roll-Off are located at 12707 Drive In Road in Breese. They moved into the property in 2023 and at the time only had three employees. There now have nine employees.
For more information, visit clintoncountyrolloffs.com or call 618-699-1044. There is an area on the website where people can specify when they want to receive the dumpster and where they would like it placed on their property. If the date is not available, they would be offered the next available date.
If people are unsure if a roll-off dumpster is a right fit for their needs, there is a spot on the website where they can read and learn about the dumpsters.
At some point, they plan on hiring drivers to help haul the dumpsters to and from sites.
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- Written by: Kelly Jo Ross - Breese Journal News Editor
Debbie Warshawski shows an image of her mother, Sonia, on the screen. Her mother is alive and well and living on her own at 100 years old. More than 100 people gathered Monday evening at Breese Public Library to hear the story of Holocaust survivor Sonia Warshawski, presented by her daughter, Debbie Warshawski.
Debbie shared the remarkable story of her mother’s survival during World War II, recounting the horrors Sonia endured as a young Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied Poland and the strength that carried her through concentration camps, forced labor and a death march.
Sonia Warshawski was 13 years old when World War II began in 1939. Her family lived in Miedzyrzec, Poland, where her grandfather owned a successful tailor business and the family operated a kosher restaurant.
“In 1939, World War II broke out and — as I’m sure most of you know — things would never be the same, and not just for the Jews in Poland or in Europe, but for everyone around the world pretty much,” Debbie said.
Debbie explained how her mother’s family was forced from their home and relocated to a ghetto area in town. Jewish residents were banned from schools, forbidden from walking on sidewalks and required to wear armbands identifying them as Jewish.
At one point, Sonia’s father created a hiding place beneath the floorboards of their small home. The family successfully hid during Nazi searches until German soldiers brought in a German shepherd that sniffed them out.
The family was then separated.
Debbie described how Sonia’s younger sister was upset and screaming, causing a scene, and their father entrusted her to a farmer (and paid money) in hopes of saving her sister's life.
Sonia and her mother (Debbie's grandmother) were later transported by train to the Majdanek concentration camp. Packed into rail cars without windows, many prisoners died from heat, thirst, starvation and disease before arriving.
Sonia Warshawski was tattooed numbers on her arm at one of the concentration camps. A painting of one of the images, alongside the actual tattoo on Sonia’s forearm.
At Majdanek, they were given tattoos on their forearm, only identifying them as a number, and worked in the fields, witnessing unimaginable cruelty.
Debbie recounted a story from her mother of a public hanging of two girls who had attempted to escape the camp. Prisoners were forced to watch as the girls were executed. Debbie's grandmother had tried to look away, but one of the S.S. guards slapped her in the face.
“And as the two young girls walked up, one of them spat in the face of the S.S. guards, and the girl stopped and yelled at the crowd, ‘Never forget. Take revenge,’” Debbie said. "But, my mother never forgot those words — 'Never forget. Take revenge.' She said she was then hellbent on surviving. And that was not going to be an easy thing to do. In some cases, survival was luck, but in many other cases, it was the will and the smarts to survive."
Sonia and her mother survived several “selections,” where prisoners were separated and sent either to forced labor or to their deaths.
Eventually, however, Sonia’s mother was selected for the gas chambers.
