BOYERS — You’re more likely to run into a chicken than a red light in Marion Township.

There’s not a single traffic signal in the township.

“Every other house has chickens,” said Jason McBride, chairman of the board of township supervisors. “For the eggs. Life is pretty simple and here that’s the way we like it.”

The township, which has only one full-time road worker, doesn’t have a dedicated roadmaster. Instead, the three supervisors work as a team, driving the township’s 39 miles, looking for problems, making the plans, and — yes — doing the pothole fixing and snow plowing when needed.

In addition to McBride, the supervisors are Richard Carlantonio and Dan Patton.

“Dick (Carlantonio) is the first one out there. He’s up at 3 a.m.,” said McBride.

“Our biggest challenge is getting help,” said McBride. “We have one or two key players, and if one of them goes home or gets sick, we run into problems.”

Ray Mayle, the road crew’s lone full-timer, has been working for the township more than 30 years.

The supervisors, who get a $50 a month per diem, also get $11 an hour to do road work. They’re all among the 10-person list of on-call road workers employed on an as-needed basis.

For example, McBride worked on the roads about 200 hours last year and netted $2,400 on his W2. The on-call workers got a raise to $12 an hour this year.

The supervisors have talked about hiring another full-time road worker, but there’s no money in the $243,000 total annual township budget.

There’s also no money in the budget to pave roads. All but a few miles of the township roads are gravel.

The township hasn’t paved a road in more than two decades and most of the three miles of paved Campground Road they do control was paved by state Department of Transportation and then turned over to Marion.

“If we did (pave), a mile of paving would take our whole budget. Then we wouldn’t have any money left over to maintain the other roads,” McBride said.

The township spends more than half of its tax income budget plus all of its state liquid fuel tax funds on the road crew.

The busier paved highways in the community, including Route 58 and 308, are state maintained.

Another priority to the residents is low taxes. The township hasn’t raised its 7.14 mill property tax rate in more than a dozen years.

Road projects, which use more than half the total budget, include pothole repair, dust control, cleaning culverts, and tarring and chipping roads.

McBride said the township tries to buy a new piece of equipment every other year, generally at a cost of $8,000 to $10,000.

The supervisors create a to-do list that is highlighted by a summer goal and a winter goal.

But mainly, McBride said, the top priority is clearing the roads of snow. When all three township trucks are working, it takes fewer than four hours to plow all of the roads.

McBride said as the years go by, people are more sensitive to snow. Where once the township would hold off plowing until conditions looked dicey, “nowadays two inches is considered a snow emergency,” he said.

Paved roads, shopping malls and traffic jams aren’t what this community is about, he said. A good share of the residents — he estimates 75 percent — are farmers who enjoy the rural lifestyle.

McBride himself raises beef cattle and is owner of the pizza shop, McBride’s Pizza and Wings, right in the heart of the main drag.

He’s proud to say he was born and raised in the township. McBride has been a supervisor for a dozen years and his wife, Kathy, is on the Moniteau School Board. Mike, the family’s pet donkey, is also the alarm clock going off every day at 6 a.m.

“This is a great place to live,” he said. “Once you move to Marion Township, you will never leave.”