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Today's News

  • Warriors explode in second half, crush Webber

    Fueled by a highly-effective full-court press,  the Patoka basketball team used a 14-2 run midway through second half to break open a close game before rolling to a 72-47 nonconference victory over Webber Township at home.

    Patoka led by just three, 33-30, at the 4:14 mark of the third quarter, but took control late in the period. The Warriors then exploded for 21 points in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter. They wound up outscoring Webber 35-8 during an 8 1/2-minute stretch of play.

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  • Local gift may save Statehouse

    When the key turned in the door of the Vandalia Statehouse on Sunday evening, the state said it would be the last time the facility would be open to the public for the foreseeable future.

    Gov. Rod Blagojevich had slashed the funding, and that was that.

    But state officials don't know the people of Vandalia – though they should be getting an idea of the character of the residents by now. Remember the effort to save the Vandalia Correctional Center? Remember the effort to build the first phase of the Kaskaskia College campus?

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  • Fire damages house; firefighters save dog

    A fire mid-morning on Tuesday caused significant damage to a Vandalia home.

     

    But as some of Vandalia’s volunteer firefighters were busy knocking down the blaze, others were working to rescue a family pet.

     

    Firefighters were called to the home owned by Mike and Debbie Themig at 1311 Morning Glory Drive at 10:32 a.m.

     

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  • State-ranked Lady Vandals off to 2-0 start

    For the first time in program history, the Vandalia girls basketball team has earned a state ranking.

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  • Vandals top Belleville West in opener

    Newcomers put the Vandalia wrestling team in a position to claim victory in VCHS’s season-opener Tuesday, as three Vandals recorded pins in their first-ever varsity matches.

    A familiar face then sealed the deal in style.

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  • City hopes state accepts anonymous donation to keep Statehouse open

    The city of Vandalia is hopeful that the state will accept a gift from an anonymous donor and reopen the Vandalia Statehouse.

    The Statehouse was among the state historic sites that were shuttered at the end of the day on Sunday as a result of state budget cuts.

    Mayor Rick Gottman said Wednesday that an individual has donated to the Old Capitol Foundation enough money to pay the salary of the full-time Statehouse employee that was laid off as a result of the budget cuts.

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  • Ramsey, Kinmundy state parks are still open

    While Illinois residents have lost the ability to visit most of the state’s historic sites, they can still use two area state parks.

    Tim Pryor at Ramsey Lake State Park and Glenn Wegener at Stephen A. Forbes State Park in Kinmundy said that those two state parks are still open.

    Those state parks are not among those that have been closed by the state as a result of budget cuts.

    Pryor and Wegener said that the cuts have had an impact on staffing, but they have not had resulted in any restrictions on use of the facilities by the public.

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  • State gives update on U.S. Route 51 expansion project

    The Illinois Department of Transportation may not be ready to bid out the four-lane expansion of U.S. Route 51 in Fayette County, but that doesn’t mean the state agency is waiting to get comments from residents of local communities.

    The agency and its Route 51 consultants are holding regular meetings with both community and regional advisory committees, and soliciting comments from the general public as it reaches “milestones” in the initial phase of highway improvements in this area, according to a representative of one of the consulting firms.

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  • Hulda and Clifford Nickels celebrating 98th Christmases

    Hulda and Clifford Nickels, who are celebrating their 98th Christmases this year, reached back into their memories to recall Christmases of many years ago.

    They were both born in 1910, and met and married much later in their lives. They lived south on Ill. Route 185 for years, until moving to Fayette County Hospital Long Term Care several years ago. They seem very content in their room, which is furnished with comfortable furniture and personalized with their own belongings and family pictures.

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  • Jeweled frame gift keeps memories alive

    At our annual Torbeck Family Reunion this past July at the Senior Citizen’s Center in Vandalia, I arrived with my family and looked around to see who was already there.

    As I looked around the room, I saw some of my immediate family, and cousins of my dad, the oldest members of the family. In the days of my childhood, the numbers attending the reunion numbered 100, but now it is down to the 20-plus dutiful family members, for the most part descendents of Johann Joachim Torbeck, who was 3 years old when his parents sailed to America.

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