This story by Liberty Darr was first published by The Citizen on Feb. 20.
The signs were clear — the hay wagon signs that New York business owner and entrepreneur Raymond Rice put along Route 7 in Charlotte and other neighboring towns a few months ago, that is.
They were so clear, it prompted some Charlotte residents and others in neighboring towns to call their local legislator and the Vermont Agency of Transportation to investigate whether the banners placed on hay wagons along the major highway violated the state’s 57-year-old billboard law.
Now, the drive along Route 7 to the New York border is void of the temporary fixtures, which one Charlotte resident called an “eyesore.” But still, a hay wagon sporting a “Rice Farm and Tires” banner is likely to be the first thing you see upon crossing the border into the Empire State.
The whole debacle is shedding some light on one of Vermont’s most unique and antiquated state laws. What if the sign is on wheels? What if it’s not technically a billboard? What if it’s a banner zip tied to a hay wagon?
For the unofficial sign guy in Vermont, John Kessler — general counsel for the Agency of Commerce and Community Development — the answer, in this situation, was black and white.
Kessler explained it’s not uncommon for the agency to get complaints about signs, but they are usually situations that can be sorted out at the district office level. It’s not every day the complaints make their way up to Kessler, who has over 35 years of institutional knowledge about all things signs in Vermont. He’s also chair of the seven-member Travel Information Council.
“A sign for a business that’s not located there, that’s black and white, it’s not allowable,” he said.
But Rice, the New York business owner and frequent Vermont visitor — he lives roughly 20 miles from the border — argues that his business provides services across Lake Champlain, with a majority of his clients from Vermont.
Although Rice took the signs down last Thursday in the middle of a small snowstorm, he said the idea started brewing as a creative and cost-effective way to advertise his tire business. While the signs on the side of the road — which cost him roughly $300 per wagon — were a clever way to make travelers aware of the services he offers, they were all placed on private property, owned mostly by his farmer friends, strategically in areas where many of his clients would need him.
Not only are most of his clients from Vermont, but his tire service offers on-site help, meaning he technically is providing the service a lot of the time right here in Vermont.
“I don’t have the money for radio. I don’t have money for television,” he said at his shop in Westport, New York, which doubles as his house. “I’m doing everything I can do as Rice Farm and Tires on Facebook, but they always want you to boost your ads and all this stuff, and that costs money. So how do you advertise? And so, I was like, ‘Well, you know, this seems like a good way of advertising.’”
A farmer by blood and trade, Rice turned to the tire business roughly nine months ago after a shop in Vermont quoted him $1,800 for a tire that needed to be replaced on one of his farm rigs. When he learned from a friend that he could buy the same tire for roughly $400 cheaper elsewhere, the wheels in his mind started turning.
While he’s had his hand in farm operations since his youth, his most recent hay business was stalling and the tire business, in more ways than one, just landed in his lap.
The signs, he said, were a way to keep the business coming and with that, also the money.
“I don’t want to be the resident a–hole,” he said. “But I can tell you right now, I’m scared to death that I can’t meet payroll. I mean, we’re only eight or nine months into this thing. It takes a lot to get this started, and this is scary.”
He said his mind was blown receiving emails from residents who were angry, not just about the disruption to scenic views, but that he wasn’t a Vermont business.
For one Charlotte resident, Scott Wilson — who declined to be interviewed — the signs were enough of an annoyance to email Rice and request he remove them, adding that the “billboard on wheels” has caused several people on social media to encourage business elsewhere.
And according to Rep. Chea Waters Evans, D-Charlotte, the outcry from her constituents was enough to bring her to the Charlotte Selectboard meeting earlier this month to notify the town’s government about the signs.
“Put in your phone and see how far it is to Charlotte,” Rice said, pointing to Camel’s Hump peak poking out of the clouds in perfect view from his shop “Vermont’s out my front window. We have a natural barrier, but really, we’re in the Champlain Valley.”
A notice of law violations sent to Rice from a Agency of Transportation project manager, David Hosking, earlier this month told Rice he needed to remove the signs within 14 days from receiving the letter. According to Kessler, statute says that violations could cost $100.
For Rice, who loves his scenic views just as much as the next person, living in a rural area without much commerce requires him to get creative when it comes to gathering clients, especially since the dirt road he lives on nearly washed out during flooding this summer forcing customers to drive even greater distances to reach his shop. And even more so, since there’s only roughly three dairy farmers left in his county.
Sometimes, the only way to look is across the pond, he said.
With the signs down, and with some new attention coming his way, Rice was already cooking up ideas for new business.
“Did you like our hay wagons? Did you dislike them? Either way, mention it and save 20 dollars off an alignment for any alignment scheduled from now until the end of March,” reads a Facebook post from the company.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Wagon signs in Charlotte spur billboard scrutiny.