Photo courtesy of Shawnee Hills and Hollers
SALINE CO., Ill. – Two young individuals were arrested this morning in Cottage Township as a result of protests against the closure of Rocky Branch Road in Saline County.
The township is in dotted red line
Regular readers will recall the ongoing turmoil developing in the township located west of Equality on the eastern side of Saline County. The current print edition (March/April 2014) contains an article regarding a county board meeting, wherein residents of the township are asking the county to intervene on their behalf in the mess involving logging in advance of coal mining, which residents claim will destroy their property and way of life. The article can be read at this link if you have an online membership to the e-Edition.
Things heated up even further at last night’s March county board meeting….and resulted in a planned roadblock this morning.
The two individuals who were arrested early this morning have been identified as Alice Fine, 19, and Daniel Goering, 20. Both were charged with Obstruction of a Police Officer, and were immediately bailed out by the residents of Rocky Branch, on whose behalf they were protesting.
Police arrived on the scene almost as soon as the blockades had been set up. The arrests were “peaceful,” and the officers conducted themselves cordially, according to a representative of the movement.
The protest this morning took the form of blockades on Rocky Branch Road. The protests began in the early morning hours, just before the sun rose. Protesters set up the two blockades at Old Route 13 and Carnahan Roads, blocking the only routes the logging trucks had to access Peabody land, and successfully blocking the way to Cottage Township and Rocky Branch.
The logging activity in the Rocky Branch area has been underway for the past several weeks. Many of the trees in the area have been cleared out.
The closure was discussed during last night’s Saline County Board meeting as representatives of both Cottage Township and Peabody spoke to their cause. The Board did not take action last night, but called a Special Board Meeting for April 15, 2014, at 5:30 pm on the matter.