River mile markers placed along Jackson and Cowpasture Rivers

The Alleghany Highlands Chamber of Commerce & Tourism has completed a grant-funded project that placed high visibility mile marker signs along the portions of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers lying within Alleghany County, the City of Covington and the towns of Clifton Forge and Iron Gate. “This project improves the safety and water-based recreational experiences of users to waterways in our region. Installation of the sign markers will help prevent river users from becoming lost or confused and therefore reduce the number of emergency calls, especially from those who are not familiar with the rivers. It will also assist first responders by allowing them to more quickly respond to emergency calls by providing more accurate and detailed location descriptions,” states Teresa Hammond executive director of the Alleghany Highlands Chamber.

“We would like to thank Image Express for their work in fabricating the signs, Matthew Fisher of Alleghany Outdoors and Chad Williams of Alleghany County Parks and Recreation who assisted in the selection of the signs locations, as well as Dale Lowry along with Timmy Downey for installing the signs,” added Hammond.

Susan Knick, special projects coordinator, says “We highly value visitors as well as our citizens who use the rivers and see this added safety measure as a way to make users feel more welcomed and at ease while on our waterways.” Continued Knick, “There have been a total of twenty-five marker signs placed along the rivers to date. The majority of the signs have been co-located with public access points along the rivers. Moving forward we have plans to install additional directional signs, such as mandatory take-out points, in areas identified by our waterways use committee members with input from our first responder community.”

Additional information about the Alleghany Highlands Chamber of Commerce and Tourism or the Alleghany Highlands Blueway may be obtained by calling (540) 962-2178 or email to info@ahchamber.com.