Mount Vernon, Illinois
Mount Vernon is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, United States. The population was 15,277 at the 2010 census. Mount Vernon is the principal city of the Mount Vernon Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Jefferson and Hamilton counties. Mt. Vernon was founded in 1817 by Zadok Casey, elected to the State Senate in 1822 and was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1833, he served in the U. S. Congress between 1833 and 1843; the town was named for George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon, named for Edward Vernon, a British naval hero. When the town was founded, there was no road to it. Travelers had to get there by either following the high ground from the north or crossing the swamps from the south. In the early 19th century the Goshen Road crossed Illinois in a northwesterly direction from Old Shawneetown, Illinois to the Goshen Settlement, near what is now Edwardsville; this road was the main road in Illinois. When Mt. Vernon was first settled, the Goshen Road made a wide arc across Jefferson County, crossing Casey Creek and the Big Muddy north of Mt. Vernon, avoiding the swamps to the south, but bypassing Mt. Vernon.
The road entered the county at its southeast corner. It passed through, or near, what are now Opdyke, East Salem, Idlewood and Walnut Hill. However, it was apparent to the early settlers. In 1820 -- 1821, Ben Hood and Carter Wilkey built a bridge to the southeast of town; this bridge was near the present bridge on Illinois Route 142. A road was built from there northwest, over ground, now impassable, toward the old cemetery behind the modern Bethel Cemetery. Deep cuts through the old cemetery attest to the location of the road. From there the road followed modern Route 37 into town, somewhere shifting from 10th Street on west to 12th Street. After the state capital was moved to Vandalia in 1819, it became apparent that a road to Vandalia was needed. A party was sent out to the northwest to mark the road. In 1823, Thomas D. Minor and William Maxwell built the "Vandalia Road", now called the "Old Centralia Road." It runs northwest out of Mt. Vernon to Walnut Hill. Although legend says that this road is crooked because of the drunken state of the surveyors, the path is just the natural path of a pioneer road following the terrain.
After the bridge and the Vandalia Road were built, Mt. Vernon was "on the map." The bridge across Casey Creek and the Vandalia Road provided a much shorter path across Jefferson County than the original Goshen Road. The new Goshen Road soon captured most of the traffic, Mt. Vernon became an important stop on the road west. In 1836, Joshua Grant came to Mt. Vernon from Christian County, Kentucky with several of his sons and daughters, his family was an wealthy, slave-owning family, most of which soon moved to Arkansas because slavery was illegal in Illinois. Joshua left behind several daughters and one son, Angus McNeil Grant, who soon became important in the development of the town. "Upon his arrival, there were but four or five houses in the place, from that time to the present he has and ably exerted himself in securing to it the full development of its resources." Angus M. Grant's brother, Joshua Jr. taught school in Mt. Vernon in 1838; some sources cite him as the first schoolteacher in the town.
In 1848, in accordance with the new constitution of Illinois, the Illinois Supreme Court first Grand Division was relocated to Mt. Vernon. There were three divisions total comprised for the first and third areas of the state; the 5th District Appellate Court was constructed in 1854 and is still in use as the Appellate Court House. When the Supreme Court was in session, the important lawyers in Illinois, including Abraham Lincoln, gathered in Mt. Vernon to argue their cases; the lawyers gathered at the Mt. Vernon Inn, owned by Angus McNeil Grant and his in-laws, the Andersons; this building has been on the National Register of Historic Places since July 2, 1973. In the 1870s, Mt. Vernon for a time prohibited the sale of alcohol. A village called. A court fight held that the village was organized illegally. Mt. Vernon voted alcohol back in, the area of East Mt. Vernon was annexed into the city. On February 19, 1888, a tornado cut a path a half mile wide through Mt. Vernon, killing 37 people and destroying more than 450 houses.
The Jefferson County Courthouse was destroyed. This event was one of the first disasters. Clara Barton herself directed the relief efforts; the Mt. Vernon Car Manufacturing Company opened in 1889 after moving from Illinois; this relocation may have been an outgrowth of the relief efforts following the tornado. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad hauled in some 1,900 carloads of supplies for reconstruction of the town. Somehow, this effort translated into a major business building railroad cars, at first building about ten cars per day. By 1909, the car shops were producing 25 cars per day, employing more than 1000 workers, with a payroll of $60,000 per month. During World War II, portions of the "Car Shops", as they had to come to be known, were converted over to wartime production, including the production of bomb casings. Around 1939, a portion of the car shops was purchased by Precision Engineering, which built components for locomotives. During the 1970s, this company purchased old diesel/electric railroad locomotives, which it scrapped out or refurbished.
Today, the plant thrives as a hub for National Railway Equipment Company which rebuilds and services diesel electric locomotives for rail lines across the globe. In 1954, the car
Eldorado, Illinois
Eldorado is a city in Saline County, United States. The population was 4,122 at the 2010 census, with a 1925 peak of 8,000. Although the city's name is spelled as if it were Spanish, the name was "Elder-Reado"—a combination of the last names of the town's two founders, Judge Samuel Elder and Joseph Read. According to legend, a signpainter for the railroad painted the name "Eldorado" on the train depot. Eldorado is included in the Illinois–Indiana–Kentucky tri-state area and is a bedroom community in the Harrisburg micropolitan statistical area. In September, 1963, five months before The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show brought them stardom in the United States, George Harrison performed at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Eldorado with a local band called The Four Vests; this was the first performance by a Beatle in the United States. At the time and his brother were visiting their sister, who had relocated with her husband to nearby Benton. At one time there was an extensive maze of railroad tracks.
All but one are now replaced with bike trails. In 1946, the adjacent village of Beulah Heights annexed to Eldorado. Eldorado was a sundown town. Eldorado is located at 37°48′51″N 88°26′27″W. According to the 2010 census, Eldorado has a total area of 2.431 square miles, of which 2.39 square miles is land and 0.041 square miles is water. The junction of the pioneer Kaskaskia and Goshen Trails was located just south of the city; the Goshen Trail began in Old Shawneetown and ran along the east side of Eldorado and on to the Goshen Settlement, a community near the present day East St. Louis; as of the census of 2000, there were 4,534 people, 1,945 households, 1,182 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,967.8 people per square mile. There were 2,236 housing units at an average density of 970.5/sq mi. The racial makeup of the city was 98.26% White, 0.35% African American, 0.22% Native American, 0.02% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.22% from other races, 0.90% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.19% of the population. There were 1,945 households out of which 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.8% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 39.2% were non-families. 35.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 20.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.21 and the average family size was 2.86. In the city, the population was spread out with 22.2% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 23.5% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, 24.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 84.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.0 males. The median income for a household in the city was $22,500, the median income for a family was $30,861. Males had a median income of $27,721 versus $14,514 for females; the per capita income for the city was $12,980. About 16.4% of families and 23.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.1% of those under age 18 and 19.1% of those age 65 or over.
Eldorado used to have the smallest daily newspaper in Illinois until when declining circulation and advertising revenue for the Daily Journal forced its parent company to scale back publication to only three days per week. The Journal had been a daily paper since 1911. In 1925, Dr. J. V. Ferrell founded Ferrell Hospital, which exists today as a 52-bed facility operated by Southern Illinois Healthcare. Effective March 1, 2004, SIH entered into an agreement with Alliant Management Services to return the hospital to local ownership and governance. On April 1, 2005, Ferrell Hospital Community Foundation became a stand-alone facility managed by Alliant Management Services; as Ferrell is a small hospital, services are provided via other hospitals by transportation via ambulance for non-critical issues, Air Evac Lifeteam Air Ambulance for critical emergencies. Although, Ferrell Hospital employees are knowledgeable and can diagnose many illnesses, the facility lacks those provided by, for example, many Level 1 Trauma Hospitals.
Eldorado holds a few records within the Illinois High School Association. Two all-time scorers Mike Duff and Cody Lane grew up here, Roger Grumley and Eric Brannock of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame were born in Eldorado. Eldorado Memorial Public Library District Eldorado Community Unit School District 4 Eldorado Main Street Eldorado Historical Museum Egyptian Health Department Eldorado Historic Facebook Page
Illinois State Highway System
The organized State Highway System of the U. S. state of Illinois comprises all of the state routes in the state. The Illinois Highway Code states that all state highways are to be numbered, that no state highway shall go unnumbered. In addition, roads in the system include state highways that connect Descriptions of each individual state highway are filed with the county clerk of the county in which the state highway resides. State highways may be maintained by either the municipalities if within a municipality, or the Illinois Department of Transportation. Should a highway run through a municipality, IDOT is authorized to choose a route through the municipality in order to make a route contiguous for through traffic; the State Highway System was created in 1918 with the first State Bond Issue Routes, 1 through 46. Bonds were floated to pay for specific routes. SBI # 1 paid for Route 1, so on; these initial 46 route numbers marked the major infrastructure roads desired by the state legislature in 1918.
Remarkably, many of these numbers still exist on the nearby alignment. As the highway system grew these numbers were altered to accommodate new roads or extensions of older roads. In 1924, additional State Bond Issues were authorized for SBI Routes 47 through 185; these route numbers were assigned and grouped to specific regions of the state. Thus, it is not uncommon to find groups of routes with similar numbers around each other (routes 23, 26, 29 are found in north-central Illinois, while routes 53, 56, 58, 59, 60, 62, 64, 68 and 72 are all found in northeastern Illinois and routes 100, 101, 103, 104, 105, 107 are found in western Illinois west of the Illinois River and south of McDonough County line. SBI Route numbers that were superseded by other routes, US or state routes were reused. For example, SBI Route 61 was assigned to a road segment in northeastern Illinois, but was reassigned to a route in western Illinois, sometime after 1937. SBI Numbers are still used for several purposes when they do not match the posted number.
IDOT District maps still refer to SBI numbers on the various roads it maintains, along with other non-posted designations that refer to how the route was authorized. Bridge weight plates refer to SBI numbers instead of posted route numbers as well. For example, bridge plates along old US-66 refer to the route as "SBI-4" When the United States Numbered Highway System was started in 1926, the US numbers were just tacked onto the existing IL/SBI number unless the US Route was routed along a new route. Illinois portal U. S. Roads portal 605 ILCS 5/Illinois Highway Code Illinois Department of Transportation Illinois Highways Page Road Signs of Illinois Illinois State Highway Endpoints
Effingham, Illinois
Effingham is a city in and the county seat of Effingham County, United States. Effingham is in Southern Illinois, its population was 12,604 at the 2015 census estimate. The city is part of IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Effingham is home to a 198 foot tall cross, The Cross at the Crossroads; the cross is the tallest cross in the United States. The city bills itself as "The Crossroads of Opportunity" because of its location at the intersection of two major Interstate highways: I-57 running from Chicago to Miner, I-70 running from Utah to Maryland, it is served by U. S. Route 45, which runs from Ontonagon, Michigan to Mobile, Alabama, U. S. Route 40, the historic National Road, which stretches from Atlantic City, New Jersey to Summit and Illinois routes 32 and 33 run through the city, it is a major railroad junction, the crossing of the Illinois Central main line from Chicago to Memphis with the Pennsylvania Railroad line from Indianapolis to St. Louis. Thus, Effingham has a broad range of restaurants, lodging facilities.
Effingham is the home of the St. Anthony Bulldogs. Effingham is located at 39°7′15″N 88°32′45″W. According to the 2010 census, Effingham has a total area of 9.921 square miles, of which 9.86 square miles is land and 0.061 square miles is water. As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 12,384 people, 5,330 households, 3,187 families residing in the city; the population density was 1,428.9 people per square mile. There were 5,660 housing units at an average density of 653.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 93.31% White, 3.8% African American, 0.19% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.38% from other races, 0.69% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.04% of the population. There were 5,330 households out of which 29.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.0% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 40.2% were non-families. 36.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.9% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older.
The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.96. In the city, the population was spread out with 24.9% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 27.7% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, 18.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.2 males. The median income for a household in the city was $34,761, the median income for a family was $45,902. Males had a median income of $31,442 versus $21,543 for females; the per capita income for the city was $19,132. About 6.5% of families and 9.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.9% of those under age 18 and 7.9% of those age 65 or over. Effingham was first settled in 1814, was known from until 1859 as Broughton; the community was named after a local surveyor. In the late 1880s, local citizens founded Austin College, which lasted for several decades, was purchased to become the Illinois College of Photography known as Bissel College.
That school closed due to the Great Depression in the 1930s. On April 4, 1949, St. Anthony's hospital burned to the ground, killing 74 people; as a result, fire codes nationwide were improved. Due to extensive media coverage, including a "Life Magazine" cover story, donations for rebuilding the hospital came from all 48 states and several foreign countries. Effingham was a sundown town. Effingham is historically important as a rail junction; the old Pennsylvania Railroad and the former Illinois Central Railroad crossed in downtown Effingham. Today, Amtrak's City of New Orleans passes through daily. Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Effingham under the daily City of New Orleans route to New Orleans and Chicago and Illini routes to Chicago and Carbondale; until October 1, 1979, the station served Amtrak's former National Limited line between Kansas City and New York City. Effingham has several schools, both private; the private schools include Saint Anthony and Sacred Heart.
Saint Anthony Grade School serves grades preschool to eighth grade. SAGS has the Bullpups as its mascot. Sacred Heart Grade School serves preschool to eighth grade. SHS's mascot is the Shamrocks; the public schools include the Early Learning Center, South Side Elementary, Central Grade School, Effingham Junior High School, Effingham High School. The Early Learning Center serves kindergarten age children. South Side Elementary serves second graders. Aspire, a school for students who are to drop out or those who get expelled. Central Grade School serves third through fifth grade students. Central Grade school's mascot is the mustangs. EJHS serves junior high students in grades six to eight. EJHS's mascot is the Mustangs. Effingham High School is the public high school; the new EHS opened in the fall of 1998, has a current enrollment of 849. The former EHS building, built in 1939 as a WPA project and expanded in 1965, is the junior high, serving grades 6–8; the old junior high, Central School, is now a grade school serving grades 3–5.
EHS athletics were known as the "Warriors" but the name was changed after Ada Kepley, a city resident, referred to Effingham as the "Heart of America" in a campaign to attract visitors t
U.S. Route 460
U. S. Route 460 is a spur of U. S. Route 60, it runs for 655 miles from Norfolk, Virginia, at U. S. Route 60 at Ocean View to Frankfort, Kentucky, at U. S. Route 60, it passes through the states of Virginia, West Virginia, to Frankfort, the state capital. It goes through the cities of Norfolk, Suffolk, Farmville, Roanoke, Blacksburg and Grundy, in Virginia; the section from Interstate 81 at Christiansburg, Virginia, to U. S. Route 23 in Pikeville, Kentucky, is Corridor Q in the Appalachian Development Highway System; the portion improved under this system is unfinished between Grundy and Pikeville. US 460 is a major east–west highway in Virginia, it connects the area to Petersburg. US 460 connects Lynchburg to Roanoke. US 460 is paired with US 221 between Bedford and Roanoke and with US 11 between Salem and Christiansburg, it is the primary east–west roadway in the northern part of Southwest Virginia between Christiansburg and the Kentucky border. US 460 now begins, it is a winding two-lane highway with I-75 at Georgetown.
It proceeds to Paris, where it serves as the town's "Main Street" and intersects US 27 and US 68. The next major intersection is with I-64 in Mount Sterling, it proceeds through West Liberty. In Salyersville, the Mountain Parkway ends by merging onto it, it is a 3-lane highway for 14 miles and it merges with US 23 in Paintsville. US 460 East follows US-23 South through Pikeville; the route enters the southwestern part of Virginia. U. S. Route 460 runs east–west through the southern part of the Virginia, it has two separate pieces in Virginia, joined by a short section in West Virginia. Most of US 460 is a four-lane divided highway. US 460 from Interstate 81 at Christiansburg west to Pikeville, including the piece in West Virginia, is Corridor Q of the Appalachian Development Highway System. From West Virginia east to I-81, US 460 is part of the proposed Interstate 73; the earliest origins of this road were as part of the track once known as the Trader's Path, a Virginia colonial trail dating from the 17th century that led from Augusta County to present-day Roanoke.
Before it was commissioned as a federally designated route in the late 1940s, US 460 was designated as Kentucky Route 4 from the western Virginia state line near Grundy to Millard, Kentucky. It was Kentucky Route 40 from Paintsville to Lexington. In the pre-Interstate era, US 460 was a major highway, passing from Frankfort through Louisville and Evansville, ending in St. Louis, after crossing the MacArthur Bridge. Interstate 64 has supplanted most of old US 460 as a more direct route; the stretch through Indiana and Illinois was eliminated in November 1976. Old US 460 has been redesignated in these areas as parts of State Road 66 and State Road 62 in Indiana. However, its parent route, US 60 has not been supplanted by I-64 and converted to a state highway in the greater Louisville area. Many years after the road's elimination in Indiana in 1977, some older residents and businesses along what is now Indiana State Road 62 still refer to the road as "Highway 460." Older billboards retain that designation in the St. Meinrad area.
Some current telephone books contain listings for those living on "Hwy 460." When Fishtrap Lake was created in Pike County, Kentucky, US 460 was realigned to its current route from Salyersville to Paintsville. The former US 460 leading to the lake is now Kentucky Routes 1499 and 1789; the part between Paintsville and Millard remained U. S. Highway 23 and Kentucky Route 80. Kentucky US 60 / US 421 in Frankfort US 25 in Georgetown US 62 in Georgetown I‑75 in Georgetown US 27 / US 68 in Paris I‑64 in Mt. Sterling US 60 in Mt. Sterling; the highways travel concurrently through Mt. Sterling. US 23 in Paintsville; the highways travel concurrently to Pikeville. US 119 in Pikeville; the highways travel concurrently through Pikeville. Virginia SR 83 in Grundy US 19 in Claypool Hill; the highways travel concurrently to Bluefield. West Virginia US 52 in Bluefield; the highways travel concurrently through Bluefield. US 19 northeast of Bluefield; the highways travel concurrently to southwest of Princeton. I‑77 east-southeast of Princeton Virginia US 219 in Rich Creek Appalachian Trail across the New River near Pearisburg US 11 in Christiansburg I‑81 in Christiansburg.
The highways travel concurrently through Christiansburg. I‑81 / US 11 in Christiansburg. US 11/US 460 travels concurrently to Salem. Future I‑73 / I‑581 / US 220 in Roanoke US 11 / US 221 in Roanoke. US 221/US 460 travels concurrently to Bedford. US 29 south of Lynchburg; the highways travel concurrently to Lynchburg. US 501 in Lynchburg; the highways travel concurrently through Lynchburg. US 15 west-northwest of Farmville; the highways travel concurrently to south of Farmville. US 360 west of Burkeville; the highways travel concurrently to east of Burkeville. I‑85 southwest of Petersburg; the highways travel concurrently to Petersburg. US 1 southwest of Petersburg I‑85 / I‑95 in Petersburg. I-95/US 460 travels concurrently through Petersburg. US 301 in Petersburg I‑295 southeast of Petersburg US 258 in Windsor US 13 / US 58 in Suffolk; the highways travel concurrently to Chesapeake. I‑664 in Chesapeake; the highways travel concurrently through Chesapeake. I‑64 in Chesapeake US 17 in Chesapeake I‑264 in Norfolk US
Dahlgren, Illinois
Dahlgren is a village in Hamilton County, United States. The population was 525 at the 2010 census, it is part of the Mount Vernon Micropolitan Statistical Area. Dahlgren is located in northwestern Hamilton County at 38°11′57″N 88°41′9″W; the mean elevation of the village is 510 feet. Illinois Route 142 passes through the village, leading southeast 11 miles to McLeansboro, the county seat, northwest 15 miles to Mount Vernon. According to the 2010 census, Dahlgren has a total area of all land. Dahlgren had its start in 1870; the village was named for John A. Dahlgren, a U. S. Navy officer. A post office has been in operation at Dahlgren since 1871; as of the census of 2010, there were 525 people, 211 households, 140 families residing in the village. The population density was 526.92 people per square mile. There were 242 occupied housing units at an average density of 244.1 per square mile. There are 31 unoccupied units; the racial makeup of the village was 96% White, 2.5% Black, 1.5% Hispanic or Latino.
There were 211 households out of which 30.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.6% were married couples living together, 30.33% were a single-person households, 23.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.08. In the village, the population was spread out with 20.5% under the age of 15, 11.24% from 15 to 24, 23.24% from 25 to 44, 28.57% from 45 to 64, 16.57% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.6 males. There were 435 persons age 15 or older; the median income for a household in the village was $32,734, the median income for a family was $34,886. Males had a median income of $35,313 versus $21,071 for females; the per capita income for the village was $16,944. About 8.39% of families and 15.29% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.3% of those under age 18 and 26.2% of those age 65 or over. Agriculture remains the primary economic activity in the vicinity of Dahlgren.
Other business activity includes retail sales and manufacturing, including the fabrication of custom cabinetry and countertops. Dahlgren is located on Illinois Route 142; the nearest access to the interstate highway system is 6.5 miles to the northwest. The Evansville Western Railway provides freight rail service to Dahlgren. CSX divested 120 miles of rail line from Evansville, Indiana, to Okawville, Illinois, to the Paducah and Louisville Railway, an operating entity of Four Rivers Transportation, Inc. in a transaction whereby CSX sold all track and track equipment to PAL and provided a 20-year lease on the right-of-way. Upon completion of the sale on 31 December 2005, PAL transferred all interests to the new Class III operating entity/subsidiary, EVWR, which began operating on 1 January 2006. CSX retains title to all real estate. Dahlgren has no passenger services; the nearest airports providing service are Marion Williamson County Regional Airport, Evansville Dress Regional Airport and Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport.
The nearest passenger rail connection is in Illinois. Interstate bus service is available in Illinois, 15 miles to the northwest; the Dahlgren post office provides service to customers in the 62828 postal code. Dahlgren has had no locally published newspaper since the cessation of publication of The Dahlgren Echo many years ago; the current newspaper of record is The McLeansboro Times-Leader, published weekly in the county seat. Area daily newspapers available for home delivery include The Morning Sentinel. Dahlgren is in the Harrisburg, IL / Cape Girardeau, MO / Paducah, KY television Designated Market Area the 78th largest television market as defined by Nielsen Media Research. Residents receive over-the-air reception of the following digital broadcast channels from network affiliates: ABC — 3.1 HD & 3.2 SD — RF channel 34 NBC — 6.1 HD, 6.2 SD, 6.3 WX & 6.4 SD — RF channel 32 PBS — 8.1 HD, 8.2 PBS World, 8.3 Create & 8.4 FM Simulcast & Public Info — RF channel 8 CBS — 12.1 HD, 12.2 The CW & 12.3 WX — RF channel 12 3ABN — 15.1 SD English, 15.2 SD Spanish, 15.3 3ABN Radio, & 15.4 Radio 74 — RF channel 15 PBS — 16.1 HD, 16.2 PBS World, 16.3 Create & 16.4 FM Simulcast & Public Info — RF channel 19 Fox — 23.1 HD & 23.2 My49 — RF channel 22 TCT — 27.1 SD, 27.2 HD & 27.3 SD — RF channel 17 MyNetworkTV — 49.1 SD — RF channel 49 TCN - 49.3 HDSinclair Broadcast Group owned both the Fox and WB affiliates in the DMA prior to the September 2006 merger of UPN and WB into a newly created CW Network and was forced by Fox to convert its WB affiliate into a MyNetworkTV affiliate.
This allowed Raycom Media, owner of the local CBS and UPN affiliates, to convert its UPN affiliation to The CW. WQWQ is a low-power station. With the digital TV transition RTV ion Television/PAX, moved its transmitter northwest of Breese, IL in the St. Louis, MO DMA and is no longer available over-the-air in Dahlgren. Viewers with a rotator and suitably elevated antenna can receive all over-the-air broadcasts from Evansville, Indiana. Cable television service availa
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is an administrative agency of the State of Illinois in the United States. The roads, as well as the authority itself, are sometimes referred to as the Illinois Tollway; the system opened in 1958 in the Chicago area, has subsequently expanded to include the eastern and central sections of Interstate 88 extending into the northwestern part of the state. Beginning in 2005, the system was reconstructed to include more lanes and open road tolling, the latter of which uses I-Pass transponders to collect revenue as vehicles pass antennas at toll plazas or designated entrance or exit ramps; as of 2017, ISTHA operates 294 miles of tollways in 12 counties in Northern Illinois. The original Toll Highway Authority was established in 1941. After construction of the first toll highways in Illinois was delayed by World War II, the Illinois State Toll Highway Commission was established in 1953; the first three toll highways in the Chicago area were all planned and opened in 1958 under the authority of this Commission.
These first three toll highways are the present day Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, the Tri-State Tollway and the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway. The first segment to open was the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway between Devon Avenue and Elgin on August 20, 1958 at 3 p.m. The Toll Highway Act, in its present form, has been amended since. Under this Act, promulgated April 1, 1968, ISTHA assumed the assets and obligations of the Illinois State Toll Highway Commission. In the 1970s, the East–West Tollway was extended west from Sugar Grove to Dixon with a freeway continuing to the Quad Cities; the route was given the I-88 designation in order to obtain a higher speed limit. In 2004, ISTHA voted to rename this route the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway. In June 1984, Republican minority leader of the Illinois House of Representatives, James "Pate" Philip, helped push through legislation authorizing the construction of the North–South Tollway referred to as the DuPage Tollway. Officials at the Morton Arboretum, one of the nation's premier woodland research centers, promptly filed a federal lawsuit to block construction of the tollway.
They promised to prevent the tollway authority from obtaining environmental approval from federal officials. The lawsuit was settled, I-355 was opened in 1989 as a tollway between Army Trail Road and I-55 near Bollingbrook. On November 24, 2007, a 12.5 miles extension of I-355 opened to link I-55 to I-80. Construction of that I-355 extension began after years of environmental litigation; the Illinois Tollway website launched on September 1, 1997. The website includes online ordering of managing I-Pass accounts. In 2009-2010, the website underwent a $4.4 million e-commerce overhaul. In 2004, ISTHA made a strategic decision to expand and improve the tollway system instead of converting the roads to freeways, it adopted a $6.3 billion Congestion Relief Program. Under the program, the main toll plazas were rebuilt to have open road tolling, so that drivers with transponders would drive at normal speeds under toll collecting equipment instead of stopping to pay tolls; the toll plazas were relocated to the side of the road to handle vehicles without transponders.
The plan included rebuilding and widening many of the toll roads, including most of the original portion of I-88 and the northern and southern sections of I-294. I-355 was extended south of I-55 to connect to I-80 in New Lenox, a distance of 12.5 miles, in order to serve fast-growing areas of Will County. The project includes adding an interchange between the Tri-State Tollway and I-57; these improvements were financed by long-term revenue bonds that require the system to remain as toll roads until the bonds are repaid in 2034. The Congestion Relief Program was followed by another 15 year capital program named Move Illinois. Approved by ISTHA in 2011, the $14 billion capital program will address the remaining needs of tollway system not addressed by the Congestion Relief Program, as well as construct several new projects; the program is expected to add $21 billion to the economy. The projects in Move Illinois include reconstructing and widening I-90 between Rockford and the Kennedy Expressway as well as I-294 between Balmoral Ave and 95th Street.
The Tollway's board of directors has eleven members. The Governor of Illinois and the head of the Illinois Department of Transportation serve as ex officio members of the Tollway Board; the remaining 9 members are named by the governor. No more than 5 appointed members may be of the same political party as the governor; the Authority has the power to collect and raise tolls, is responsible for the maintenance and construction of tollway roads and related signage. The Tollway supervises and manages the seven Illinois Tollway oases; the close relationship between the governor and the near-majority of appointed board members has led to numerous allegations of endemic corruption throughout the tollway authority's lifetime. The ISTHA's annual budget for fiscal year 2010 totals $696 million; the ISTHA has 1,704 full-time employees. As of January 1, 2010, ISTHA has $4,074,675,000 in bond debt, which have been rated Aa3, AA- and AA- by Moody’s Investors Service, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's, respectively.
The ISTHA
IL 37 in Mt. Vernon
IL 14 / IL 242 in McLeansboro
US 45 in Eldorado
IL 13 north of Equality
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