DUFFIELD — The Lenowisco Planning District Commission is poised to help seek big bucks for the effort to rebuild a local landmark destroyed by arson.

At an Oct. 6 meeting, the Lenowisco board voted unanimously to ask the Commonwealth Transportation Board to consider plunking down up to $350,000 from its TEA-21 enhancement program toward a new and improved High Knob observation tower.

Planner Chris Starnes told the board that Lenowisco has to ask for the grant, because only government agencies have the power to make such requests of the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“The ultimate goal is for this to be a regional project. It’s in Wise County, but many visitors come to High Knob from outside of Wise County,” Starnes noted.

TEA-21 enhancement grants require localities to match 20 percent of the grant award, Starnes pointed out. The organization overseeing efforts to rebuild the tower, the High Knob Enhancement Corporation, already has $105,000 in private donations and expects at least $100,000 more in donations in the coming months.

Starnes didn’t have a completed grant application in hand that night, but the board’s action gave Lenowisco planners the authority to complete one. Applications for the TEA-21 enhancement program are due at the end of October, he noted. VDOT will likely announce funding awards in early 2009, according to Starnes.

He added that Lenowisco officials are “pretty confident” the project is a good candidate for funding.

If awarded, the money would be used for planning, design, right-of-way and construction of a new tower at the site of the beloved local landmark, which was destroyed by arson in a Halloween 2007 blaze.

Current estimates set the cost of building a new tower at about $572,000.

NEW AND IMPROVED

High Knob Enhancement Corporation officials have said they don’t plan to simply rebuild the observation tower as it stood before the fire.

Although their first priority is rebuilding the tower, the group also hopes to develop a comprehensive educational tourism destination.

Projects already identified include:

• Developing a separate facility that may include a visitor’s center, an environmental education center, an artisan’s center, an amphitheater and/or a restaurant;

• Building a comprehensive network of trails beyond those presently planned at the site to connect High Knob to other points of interest;

• Upgrades to the High Knob campground;

• Developing other “vista” opportunities, including driving trails; and

• Developing a marketing strategy for the site.

— Some information provided by staff writer Keith Strange.