BETWEEN coming back from National Guard duty in Iraq in 2004 and taking a job at Northern Neck State Bank not long after, Chip Jones of Montross found himself driving trucks for a time.

And he began to notice license plates.

"It struck me how many speciality plates I'd see for regions like Virginia Beach or the Eastern Shore," said Jones, 30.

The lifelong Westmoreland County resident said the more plates he saw, the more a sentiment grew in him about his beloved home territory, the Northern Neck.

"As much as any of these regions, the Northern Neck is certainly worthy of having its own license plate," he said.

This week, Jones, Northern Neck legislators and the Northern Neck Land Conservancy announced a grass-roots campaign aimed at making that happen.

Jones took the idea initially to Westmoreland Del. Rob Wittman, now in Congress. State Sen. Richard Stuart took up the issue and put in a bill in this year's General Assembly to create a a plate promoting tourism and conservation on the Northern Neck.

Some legislators expressed concern about the number of new tags being suggested.

To see that a specialty plate would sell enough to cover its costs, the DMV and legislators want any new request to arrive with at least 350 paid applications.

So, the folks behind the Northern Neck tag started a campaign to get pre-applications rolling in.

A kick-off rally was scheduled to take place last night at Lancaster Courthouse.

Jones said he thinks getting the 350 applications will be easy, partly because Northern Neck residents and others with ties to the peninsula are proud of their region and its heritage.

And partly because the proposed tag looks pretty good.

The proposed plate has a Chesapeake Bay deadrise fishing boat on the left side. At the bottom of the plate will be a simple tag line: NORTHERN NECK.

The annual surcharge for the specialty plate will be $25. If someone wants to personalize their specialty plate, the charge would be $35.

After setup costs are covered by the sale of the first 1,000 plates, $15 per plate would go to the Land Conservancy.

Jones said it took him a while to pick the Land Conservancy to receive proceeds from the plate.

"The work they do to preserve natural and open land in the Northern Neck serves all residents here," he said. "And it preserves what we love so much about this place."

Jamie Tucker of the Land Conservancy said the group is about the plate.

She said the group thinks the plate will spread knowledge of the Northern Neck and the Land Conservancy's preservation work.

Current plans call for the pre-applications and money for the Northern Neck plate to be processed by Land Conservancy until the license plate becomes official.

If the plate is approved during the 2009 General Assembly session, backers hope that plates would become available in the second half of the year.

Jones is uncomfortable with credit for the idea, but he said he thinks the plates will show up on cars throughout the state.

"There are many people in Northern Virginia and all over who have cottages or connections in the Northern Neck," he said. "I think many of them will want to have this plate on their car."

Rob Hedelt: 540/374-5415
Email: rhedelt@freelancestar.com