By Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com Reporter
GLENMONT — With a snip of the scissors, a vision 20 years in the making was finally fulfilled.
A ribbon cutting ceremony held at Mohican Wilderness on Thursday marked the completion of the Wally Road project. In addition to paving the 4.1-mile stretch in Knox County, part of the road was widened and culverts replaced.
Designated a scenic byway in 2004, Wally Road spans Knox, Holmes and Ashland counties. It parallels the Mohican River and follows part of the former Walhonding Valley Railroad route. Holmes and Ashland counties paved their portions long ago, but Knox County’s portion remained a dirt road filled with potholes.
“I thought I’d have to get an extension on my life expectancy to see fulfillment of the vision,” said Wally Road resident Bill Conrad, who, along with Denny Lawson and the late Ken Wobbecke, set out years ago to make the road and the surrounding countryside attractive to tourists. “People would turn around [when they got to Knox County]. Businesses wouldn’t send people down Wally Road because it was dusty.”
Conrad told those attending the ribbon cutting that a lot of “individual enterprise” went into the project, breaking down barriers in three counties and getting the Mohican River designated a scenic river. He related how Wobbecke created Mohican Wilderness, adding bridle trails, kayaking, barns and several historic structures, including the Walnut Grove schoolhouse, along two miles of Wally Road.
Conrad said that at the onset he enlisted the help of former Knox County Commissioner Allen Stockberger. “I put a burden on him,” said Conrad, adding that second-generation help came from Teresa Bemiller, the Knox County commissioner who succeeded Stockberger. “Pat Crow was a big supporter because he knew the impact of tourism,” said Conrad.
Crow, the director of the Knox County Convention and Visitors Bureau, is a long-time Danville resident and former Danville mayor. “This has been a long time coming, but we are so delighted to have the road paved,” said Crow, who credited Conrad with continuously “churning things” to get action. “The tourism industry represents about $90 million every year to Knox County.”
Crow recalled that in middle or high school he went with his dad, who was a plumber, on a job estimate on Wally Road. “There was this guy standing there with four stakes in the ground, and he said he wanted to put in a shower house,” said Crow. The man was Wobbecke. Wobbecke’s creation is now the largest campground in Ohio.
“The initial value of a byway, beyond tourism, is the preservation and economic stability of a rural area,” said Conrad. He said the third most-often asked question from foreign tourists relates to rural areas. “They have the McDonald’s’, but they don’t have rural areas,” he said. “It’s a new renaissance, it’s a new direction for Knox County.”
Wally Road resident Bill Conrad, third from right, gets ready to cut the ribbon Thursday at Mohican Wilderness celebrating the 20-year effort to get Wally Road paved. Pictured with Conrad are, from left, Pat Crow, director of the Knox County Convention and Visitors Bureau; Clint Cochran, assistant Knox County engineer; Matt Peters, Ohio Development Services Agency; Cameron Keaton, county engineer; Kevin Mooney, The Mohicans; Thom Collier and Roger Reed, Knox County commissioners; Allen Stockberger, former Knox County commissioner; Teresa Bemiller, Knox County commissioners; and Bob Wise, former Knox County commissioner. KP Photo by Cheryl Splain
“On behalf of the Knox County Commissioners, we are thrilled to see this project get completed,” said Bemiller. “We typically don’t do ribbon cuttings for road, but Wally Road is not your typical road. It’s special. It holds a special place in Knox County tourism.
“Bill and Denny Lawson had to have people come together, we had to have funding,” she continued. “It just didn’t come together as quickly as we would have liked.”
“For me personally, I have enjoyed the Wally Road area for 50 years,” said Stockberger. He related how he came from Mohican one day and got upset about the road conditions. “The roads were good in Ashland County, they weren’t bad in Holmes County, but by the time I got to Knox County I was pretty upset,” he said. In addition, the road had three different names. That, he said, was the first thing that was fixed.
The Ohio Development Services Agency provided Community Development Block Grant money for the project. Matt Peters, assistant director of the ODSA, acknowledged the hard work of everyone involved. “We care about partnerships and collaborating with our partners, which is what happened here,” he said.
Partners include Cameron Keaton, Knox County engineer, Clint Cochran, assistant engineer, and Tim Tyson, project manager, who provided oversight and design services; Amy Schocken, CDC of Ohio, who helped obtain grant and state funding; and former Knox County Commissioner Bob Wise.
Conrad said that Keaton earned “his first combat ribbon” on the project. “He did a remarkable job with all of the stuff he had to go through,” said Conrad.
