Local highway now honors fallen veterans

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

U.S. 30 in Van Wert County, from the Allen County line to the Paulding County line, has a new name that honors local fallen veterans – Van Wert County Veteran’s Memorial Highway.

With elected officials and others looking on, signs bearing the fitting new name were unveiled Friday afternoon outside of the Van Wert County Courthouse in downtown Van Wert.

The idea came from American Legion Post 178. Navy veteran Ken Myers and Finance Officer Bill Marshall were working at Memorial Park on W. Main St., which will feature two new monuments later this year, when they thought more should be done to honor fallen veterans.

“We decided we needed to let other people know how proud we are of our veterans in the county and I got ahold of Mr. Klopfenstein (State Representative Roy Klopfenstein) and talked about what we needed to do to get a highway dedicated for our veterans,” Myers explained. “As much as we want to do other areas, we had to do something that the state would recognize, which is U.S. 30, so we went with that first and we’ll see what else we have to do to maybe do some other things along the way.”

Myers said he and Marshall came up with the idea about 14 months ago, but the proper steps had to be taken before the signs came to fruition.

“We had to wait until a bill was introduced, it has to go through legislation, then it gets passed,” Myers said. “Actually, this was done about two months ago but we wanted to wait until after Memorial Day to make sure we had the right circumstances to show our gratitude to our fallen members.”

“Anytime we can recognize the veterans and show people that freedom really isn’t free and that there was a price paid and will continue to be a price paid, it draws attention,” Rep. Klopfenstein said. “Almost without fail anything to support the veterans is pretty smooth sailing (in the legislature), there’s a lot of support there and there’s a fair number that served down there, so it was very well supported. 

Shortly after the unveiling, the signs were taken to be installed each way on U.S. 30.