HERRIN - City and utility company officials are continuing to monitor a Herrin subdivision where a subsiding coal mine has caused one property owner's land to sink along with a portion of the road.

Keith Camarato, who owns a 10-acre lot in the Timber Creek subdivision, said he the sinking began as a 49 foot by 53 foot area last Friday, and representatives of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources told him it should not get any larger.

By Wednesday morning, the sunken area in his yard had increased and had spread to a road running through the subdivision, he said. The subsidence has spread mainly east, west and north, avoiding southward movement toward Camarato's house and barn.

When one of Camarato's neighbors noticed that a portion of the road had sunk Wednesday morning, she placed orange soccer cones around the area to alert residents, he said.

"The fall was bad enough that if you got your front wheels in it, you'd bottom out," Camarato said, adding the subsidence in his yard doesn't worry him as much as the road and utilities because he can easily repair his own property.

Mayor Vic Ritter said city crews had a plan in place early to provide water and sewer services to residents if their normal service access needed to be shut down. The city has also opened alternative entry and exit access points to the subdivision and is "taking steps to ensure no one's inconvenienced."

Jim Burke, supervisor of gas engineering and operations for Ameren, said the company was planning to construct an above ground by-pass for natural gas service to the area.

Ritter said IDNR had been contacted and would return to the site. An agreement has been proposed where the city of Herrin would offer to pay for materials to repair the site if IDNR would provide the labor, Ritter said, adding there isn't much else that can be done at this point.

"Just stand by and see what happens - that's all we can do," he said.

Representatives of IDNR did not return calls for comment.