On Oct. 25, Shepherdstown Rotary Club member Conrad C. “Connie” Hammann led the Club’s semiannual Adopt-a-Highway cleanup for the last time.

Hammann, who will turn 85 in December, has coordinated the Club’s highway cleanup activities since 1987. He says it is time to turn the job over to other Club Members.

The Club’s highway cleanup is focused on the two-mile section of Route 230 (Shepherdstown Pike) from the rail crossing in Shepherdstown to the Y intersection with Flowing Springs Road. Club members pick up litter here twice a year, in the spring and fall.

Actually, Hammann has been cleaning up litter along this stretch of road even longer than the Club. He and his wife Mary Ann owned property along 230, and they conducted twice-a-year cleanups of their own in 1985 and 1986. This was in response to an effort by Polly Hockensmith to encourage local groups to adopt some of the area’s most littered byways. When the Shepherdstown Rotary Club was chartered in 1987, with Hammann as a founding member, the Club agreed to take over sponsorship of the Route 230 cleanup.

The State of West Virginia established its Adopt-a-Highway program shortly afterwards, and the Club’s cleanup was immediately recognized by that program. It is believed to be the longest-running, continuous Adopt-a-Highway cleanup in the state.

A 1947 graduate of Martinsburg High School, Hammann received an engineering degree from Carnegie Tech in 1951. After a stint in the Navy he joined the Halltown Paperboard Company in 1956 and became its president in 1972. He retired from the firm in 1997.

Besides being active in Rotary, Hammann has played leadership roles in numerous civic organizations over the years, including the Jefferson County Board of Education, the Jefferson County Development Authority, the Jefferson County and West Virginia Chambers of Commerce, the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation and United Way.

Shortly after his retirement, he received a “Distinguished Citizen of Jefferson County” award from the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce for his involvement in, and dedication to, the community.