Angelica Ramos
Contributing Writer
MONTGOMERY COUNTY- Jennifer Harris and Casey Jenkins, Co-Chairs of the Local VA250 Committee, recently presented their proposed new license plate design to the Board of Supervisors for usage in 2026.
The Local VA250 Committee has been working on what they call the Montgomery County 250th License Plate Project. This project is to make a commemorative license plate to show Montgomery County pride as the county, as well as the state of Virginia, turns 250 years old in 2026. The Local VA250 Committee, according to Harris’ and Jenkins’ presentation, is made up of representatives from organizations such as Historic Smithfield, The Town of Blacksburg, The Town of Christiansburg, The regional tourism office, the local libraries, The Christiansburg Institute, Virginia Tech, Radford University, NRCC, and many other local organizations as well as citizens-at-large.
The Local VA250 Committee is working on a number of projects to celebrate the 250th anniversary in 2026, but the License Plate Project has a good bit of immediacy as the DMV has to approve the design and provide any edits if necessary in order for them to be available in 2026. According to their presentation, Montgomery County is one of two localities that turn 250 years old in 2026.
The proposed license plate design would have a white base with the words “Montgomery County VA250” on the left-hand side in blue and red lettering. At the bottom of the plate, it would read “1776 Revolution to Revolutionary 2026” in red and blue lettering as well. At this current moment, the design could change pending the DMV’s approval, design team and guidelines. In their presentation, Jenkins and Harris explain that the phrase “Revolution to Revolutionary” will pop up often during the incoming celebration of the 250th as it celebrates many of the firsts that Montgomery County has been home to, not only for the state, but for the nation as a whole.
“Montgomery County is in a unique position,” Casey Jenkins said, “where it’s only one of two localities in the Commonwealth that gets to celebrate its own semiquincentennial, it’s 250th anniversary, and so we have unique opportunity to leverage that on a state level and on a federal level as we go forward. And on a local level here, you know one of the ideas that came from this committee was to celebrate by putting together our own commemorative license plate that we can have the community buy into. Now the State beat us to that idea in execution, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be here to try and do the same thing, again celebrating locally, what is so important to us in Montgomery County’s 250 years of history.”
The Local VA250 committee presented this to the Board of Supervisors because in order for them to move forward with this legally, they needed expressed consent and consensus from their municipality to send this to the DMV to try and get this approved and made. Once approved, Angie Hill, County Administrator would be tasked with filling out the necessary paperwork the DMV needs for approval. This process could take a year and needs 350 pre-sales in order to get this rolling and ready for 2026. The Local VA250 Committee was granted a unanimous thumbs-up approval to move forward with the process.