A group of Southwest Virginia residents committed to rebuilding the High Knob Observation Tower signed a special memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Forest Service at a Friday morning news conference in Norton, Va.

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., said the agreement “sets the terms for the future stages of the project” in a phone interview after it was signed.

The memorandum, he said, also reflects a significant amount of progress the community has made in their efforts to replace the 68-year-old Southwest Virginia icon since it was destroyed in an arsonist’s blaze on Halloween.

A federal grand jury on March 11 indicted Nicholas Owens and Christopher Dominc Hyatt with setting the observation tower on fire and lying to investigators about their actions.

Hyatt pleaded guilty to the charges against him on June 26 while Owens, who had joined the Coeburn, Va., Volunteer Fire Department just before he set the fire, is awaiting trial in Abingdon’s federal court.

“When the High Knob tower burned down, there was a shock in the community,” said Boucher. “[Rebuilding it] was just an obvious thing to do.”

But rebuilding the tower was not an easy task because the U.S. Forest Service did not have enough money to take care of the project, he said. This is why Boucher held a special forum on Jan. 8 and brought together people who were interested in rebuilding The High Knob Enhancement Corporation, a non-profit group that gained its 501(c)3 status last month, formed as a result of this conference.

Corporation Chairman Lu Ellsworth said his group so far has raised $55,000 to rebuild the tower.

Most of the money, Ellsworth said has come in though small donations though there have been larger donors including the city of Norton, Scott County, Wise County, and Virginia Dominion Power.

The Forest Service will then take this money and use it to hire an architect who will design the observation tower’s replacement, said Ed Wessman, a recreational staff assistant with the agency.

Wessman said this agreement is detailed in the memorandum of understanding his agency signed with the corporation Friday afternoon.

In the document the agency also agreed to provide any technical services and support that it can to the corporation in its efforts to rebuild, Wessman said. Ellsworth’s group in return will promote the tower’s importance to the community and their efforts to rebuild it.

Wessman said the two parties will sign a second agreement in the future that will allow the corporation to raise money to build a new tower and give it to the Forest Service.

Building a new fire tower would cost $525,000, Ellsworth said. But he feels confident the corporation can reach this goal not only because of the progress the group has made so far but because of what he thinks is the tower’s importance to the community.

“It’s been there for two or three generations,” he said. “High Knob has been not only an icon for the area but it’s also an economic asset.”

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