KNOX — This agricultural community is out to protect its own. 

At its last meeting, the Knox Town Board heard recommendations from the town’s agricultural advisory committee about installing farmer advocacy signs along roadways to prime passersby to the presence of large farm vehicles as well as petitioning the state’s Department of Transportation to move back certain guardrails to make the passage of those same vehicles easier and more safe. 

Although most Knox residents and those living elsewhere on the Hill are already accustomed to slow-moving farm equipment, people from more populated areas may not be, which can sometimes lead to discord or hazard. 

“When they see one of these big farm tractors, they consider it a nuisance and do whatever they can to get around it,” Knox Supervisor Russell Pokorny told The Enterprise this week. “It’s dangerous for the farmers and the setup.”

Agricultural committee Chairman Gary Kleppel hopes that “traffic-calming signage” will help prevent any serious accidents that might arise from such an attempt. The Enterprise reported in 2019 that traffic accidents involving tractors are five times deadlier than traditional accidents on rural roads.

“You’ve probably been stuck behind a tractor or even a snowplow and you’re trying to get from point A to point B,” Kleppel said, “but you’re getting there very slowly. We want to alert people that that might be happening on certain parts of a road, so if you’re planning to use it and you’re in a hurry, you might use a different road. And in other cases, just be aware that there could be slow-moving traffic and be prepared to slow down.”

According to the New York Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, vehicles that have a maximum speed lower than 40 miles per hour are obligated to have a slow-moving vehicle emblem attached, which is an orange-and-red triangle. If the top speed is below 40 miles per hour but over 25, they must have a top-speed indicator attached where it’s visible to drivers who may be behind them.

As with any other vehicle on a New York road, slow-moving vehicles can only be passed on certain sections of road, the committee states.

To design the signs and decide on placement, Kleppel expects the ag committee to work with Knox’s planning and town boards, “and possibly other agencies within the county and state,” he said, adding that the committee already has a list of 14 areas where they would be beneficial.

Pokorny said that putting signs up along town roads will be relatively easy, but that, for state and county roads, those governments will need to be consulted first, “which is a little more challenging.”

Kleppel said it may be worth putting up some signs earlier rather than all at once in order to gauge their effectiveness by following up with local farmers.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever driven a tractor on a road, but you know right away if you don’t feel comfortable,” Kleppel said. “One of the things we can find out from several of our farmers — even from some of the people on our committee — is, with those signs up, how do you feel? It’s not a quantitative assessment, but a qualitative, subjective judgment.”

Guardrails

The town may also be asking the state’s Department of Transportation to move back some of the guardrails in town that Kleppel believes have been placed too close to the road for large vehicles, like the livestock trailer he drives, to comfortably navigate if the other lane is occupied. 

“Imagine this,” Kleppel told The Enterprise. “A farm vehicle has entered an area with guardrails on both sides of the road. There is a car coming, and that farm vehicle has equipment that’s extending into the next lane. And that’s the way farm equipment is designed — it’s wide, it’s big.

“And now there’s a car coming in the opposite direction, and they’re both caught up in this narrow area. Somebody has to stop and back up, and the farm vehicle probably can’t back up 15 feet … so the car now has to back up and, if there’s someone coming behind that guy, that’s a very dangerous situation.”

A public information officer from the state’s Department of Transportation was not immediately available to answer Enterprise inquiries about guardrail placement. 

Kleppel hopes that promoting the interests of farmers — as well as the safety of non-farmers — in these different ways will signal to potential newcomers that Knox is an accommodating place to live, which would fit into another mission of the agricultural committee: attracting new farmers.

“We believe that the Hilltowns are a great place for people to raise families, and especially people who would like to take up farming as a career,” he said. “So, when you drive into town and see that this is a right-to-farm community, that tells potential new neighbors that they’re welcome here.

“Those right-to-farm signs have a lot of power,” Kleppel concluded. “They provide a lot of information to potential residents … and also to people who are just coming through the Hilltowns to visit.”