St Francis Township, Effingham County IL

St Francis Township, Effingham County IL This is the general page for St Francis Township, Effingham County IL. We hope to share what tasks we are doing, why and when things will happen.

Sincerely, Road Commissioner Chad Mette

With the really cold temperatures lately, our guys have still been putting in the hard work, just indoors.I would like t...
12/16/2025

With the really cold temperatures lately, our guys have still been putting in the hard work, just indoors.

I would like to give recognition to the two guys that help me out, Kenny Zike and Mark Meyer. They wire wheeled the dump truck bed down and repainted it, as well as painting the front bumper and some other parts. Keeping our equipment in order is a top priority of mine.

Kenny and Mark, your work does not go unnoticed and is greatly appreciated.

The township has also purchased a boom mower and is currently being installed on the township tractor. Every year, our township has paid someone to come around and mow out overgrown deep ditches and push back encroaching tree limbs coming out into the road. With this purchase, this is another task we can do ourselves and save the township money in the long run.

Sincerely,
Chad Mette
Road Commissioner

⚠️⚠️Oiling roads 10/3/25⚠️⚠️St. Francis Township will be oiling the below 3 miles of roads tomorrow. These roads were ti...
10/02/2025

⚠️⚠️Oiling roads 10/3/25⚠️⚠️

St. Francis Township will be oiling the below 3 miles of roads tomorrow. These roads were tilled up earlier this year and now we will be sealing them shut. They will be starting at 8am; please avoid these roads as much as possible.

Thank you!!

08/27/2025

On this weeks episode of “What’s the township doing?”…we will be discussing culverts.

We completed installing a culvert that was damaged during township right of way mowing operations, will be replacing an existing field entrance culvert to a longer one to help accommodate the farmers bigger machinery, and will be tearing out an old failing concrete box culvert that goes under a section of road with two steel pipes.

Thanks to the nice dry weather, we can get caught up on the ones mentioned above and then hopefully progress to replacing culverts in K&N subdivision in the next few weeks. We are still waiting on information back from the county highway department regarding these culverts in K&N….as there is a high probability that these projects will be a 50/50 cost share split. That means the county covers 50% and the township covers 50% of the total cost.

We also have a meeting with Howell Paving this week to go over the blacktop safety shoulder project slated to begin next week Tuesday; as the township will be receiving all the current shoulder rock along the road that they will be removing.

08/21/2025

⚠️ ⚠️ Upcoming Road Construction!! 👷‍♂️👷‍♀️

Have you seen the message boards along the Dieterich to Montrose blacktop that states “Road Construction begins week of September 1st”?

Howell Paving will be removing the shoulder stone/rock along this stretch of road and will be replacing it with a 3 or 4 feet wide asphalt safety shoulder with rumble strips. The project should begin on Tuesday, September 2nd. They will remove the rock with a milling machine to achieve the depth and width that they need and then will begin the process of rebuilding with asphalt. This project should take approximately 2 weeks, depending on weather.

Traffic will be down to one lane during the day while crews are working. Please find an alternative route if possible, slow down and watch out for flaggers, road construction workers and trucks entering and leaving the work zone. Everyone wants to return home safely to their families.

This week, we wrapped up hauling millings onto the mainly rock/dirt roads that existed within our township maintenance c...
08/16/2025

This week, we wrapped up hauling millings onto the mainly rock/dirt roads that existed within our township maintenance coverage area.

Below are before and after pictures of 1200th Avenue; between 2300th and 2400th Street. Our hope is that the millings will pack down well and create a solid base to build upon in the future for an even better road. We acknowledge that currently there are bigger chucks of millings present and we anticipate that the heavy farm equipment that will be traveling these roads this fall during harvest, will break these “asphalt chunks” up. We did look into the cost of having a company come in and regrind the millings pile, but the cost I felt, would be best used to help repair the current roads in our township that are deteriorating.

We did 2400th Street (county line); between 1400th and 1500th Avenue….as well as the section of rock road on 1600th Avenue west of Montrose Equity. In case your mind is wondering, it took 30 tandem dump truck loads of millings to do 1 stretch of mile.

Once again, the millings were free and at no cost to the township; and are very thankful to have a great working relationship with IDOT and Howell Paving to be given this valuable asset.

Sincerely,
Chad Mette

08/10/2025

Friday August 8th, we had trucks tailgate millings on 2400th Street (between 1400th and 1500th Avenue). This section of road was a mixture of large rocks and mud. These milling were free to the township from the I70 project, thanks to Howell Paving.

There are some more sections of rock roads that we plan to improve the quality of by tailgating millings on them as well; in the next few weeks.

Today, August 10th, I was out filling a few pot holes and mowed a couple miles.

Also in the next few weeks, the county highway department will be running the roads that were oil and chipped last week, and be Durapatching any pot holes still out there on those sections of road. You may ask, why weren’t they filled prior to oil and chipping…..well, I honestly just ran out of time and only had a 24-48 hour notice that they would start oiling in our township. Things should start improving little by little.

Now, let’s talk about 1400th Avenue from 1800th Street to 2300th Street. This is one of the busiest east/west roads with a lot of traffic. Plus heavy trucks from John Lewis Concrete and Hoelscher’s Concrete. The sides of the road are in dire need of help. My plan is to grade the rock shoulders down to get to a solid base and then haul an asphalt mix, dump and grade on the shoulders…and then use a roller to make it smooth. I would then oil and chip this entire section of road to seal over this new asphalt.

If everyone that travels this road regularly can just bear with me while I navigate through this process and logistical nightmare.

As always, if anyone has any concerns or issues regarding a township road, please feel free to reach out to me.

Thanks,
Chad Mette
Road Commissioner

🚨 Update: They will begin oiling and rocking roads starting tomorrow (8/4/25) and will be working late into the evening....
08/02/2025

🚨 Update: They will begin oiling and rocking roads starting tomorrow (8/4/25) and will be working late into the evening. Will begin on 1700th Avenue and work east towards 2100th Street. 🚨

***2025 Oiling of Roads Map Below***

Next week, St. Francis Township will be oiling and rocking roads. Tentatively, plan to begin Tuesday, August 4th, and expect to finish up on Wednesday, August 5th.

Please refer to the map below for the roads that we will be doing this year:

1600th Avenue; between 2100th Street and 2400th Street (goes past Montrose Equity)

1670th Avenue; between 1950th Street and 2200th Street

1700th Avenue; between 1800th Street and 2100th Street

Montrose Frontage Road (Goes by Mid-Illinois Equipment)

Effingham/Cumberland County Line (North of Montrose/North of Interstate 70)

2200th Street; North of US Highway 40 to 1670th Avenue

Any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. Sunday, August 3rd, I will be out on these roads filling in pot holes, etc in preparation for this task.

Sincerely,
Chad Metteoadrt

Upcoming Road Construction ‼️ Next week, IDOT will begin concrete culvert work at the intersections of 2300th Street (Mo...
07/24/2025

Upcoming Road Construction ‼️

Next week, IDOT will begin concrete culvert work at the intersections of 2300th Street (Montrose-Dieterich Blacktop) and 1500th Avenue; as well as 2300th Street and 1300th Avenue (Island Grove Church Road).

They plan to begin either July 29th or 30th and during this time, township roads will be closed to thru traffic during daytime hours. At the end of each day, the road will be opened back up for evening and night time traffic. IDOT will be replacing some existing culverts with concrete pipe culverts; as well as extending come concrete box culverts to help improve the radius’s of these intersections for larger farm implements and semi traffic to make these turns.

As always, please slow down when driving around road construction projects and find an alternate route going to work in the mornings and coming home in the evenings during this time frame.

Sincerely,
Chad Mette (Road Commissioner)

We are out mowing along township roads today. Even though it’s been wet and the ditches are still full of water, we are ...
07/22/2025

We are out mowing along township roads today. Even though it’s been wet and the ditches are still full of water, we are mowing from the edge of the road to the ditch. After harvest, we will be out again and try our best to mow everything out.

If you pass us while we are out, please pass with caution. Thank you

07/15/2025

Hello Everyone,

My name is Chad Mette and I am the new road commissioner for St. Francis Township, in Effingham County Illinois. I was appointed by the township board and sworn into office on May 19th, 2025.

Since taking on this new role, we have started working on catching up on things that have been neglected. Some of those items consist of: mowing along township roads, replacing failed or in the process of failing culverts, brush clearing, filling pot holes, dragging rock roads and getting the necessary tools to do our job.

Mowing is about half completed and has been a slow process with the rains. So far I’ve been a one man operation and work full time on top of township duties; trust me, I’m trying. The road oiling crew should be doing some of our township roads in the next couple of weeks. The plan is to do the roads in the northeast part of the township (around Montrose) this year. We will then plan to work counterclockwise within the township the next year and going forward.

Did you know that the cost of oil and chipping roads is paid with the Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) funds that are distributed to us by the county each year. The amount of funds dictates how much oil and rock we can buy, which then determines how many lanes miles we can do that year in our township.

The township board currently has an open spot for trustee and anyone interested to become a trustee, please feel free to reach out to me. Meetings are the last month of each month and trustees get paid for their time.

I know there are multiple issues to address within the township and I promise I will do something about it once it’s brought to my attention, it just may take me a couple weeks to get get to it…..unless it’s a serious issue then those will get addressed right away.

Thanks for following along and will keep updating our tax payers when we are out in about doing things.

Take care,
Chad Mette

Address

15480 N. 2300th Street
Montrose, IL
62445

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when St Francis Township, Effingham County IL posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category