For those who live away from the vicinity of Macoupin County. It is all over the news in this area that mine subsidence ruined the Benld Elementary School over this past weekend. This is / was quite a building, only seven years old and is totalty unusable. Over 700 students are affected. Classes have been canceled for the entire school district until today. The High School and Middle School buildings in Gillespie are being utilized on a split schedule. High and Middle school classes are form early morning until noon and then the elementary classes use these buildings until 5:15 pm. A google search will bring up a lot of news media hits for the coverage about this "disaster". All of Macoupin County has a rich history around coal mines and this sad event sure adds to the history of mining. I have bit of the mine history for the Gillespie and Benld vicinity at : http://gillespieil.com/gillespie/mining.html We should all be very thankful that this occured when no one was in the building, so there was not any human injuries. Wayne http://gillespieil.com/gillespie/