WESTPORT — Westport businessman Raymond Rice is taking heat over advertising signs he placed on hay wagons in the region.
Rice owns Rice Farm and Tires on Stevenson Road in Westport, and he placed 13 signs on hay wagons around northern New York and central Vermont.
Because the signs are portable, Rice said he thought he was clear of local sign ordinances.
The signs are just text giving the name of his business, telephone number, address and other information.
But negative posts on social media have threatened to tear his signs down for aesthetic reasons, he said.
“I seem to have aggravated people with my billboards,” he told the Press-Republican.
“They’re all in farmers’ fields, people I do business with. I own a small business. We had one defaced; they painted on it. In Ferrisburgh (Vt.) they took one down and cut it up and put it under the wagon. I put it back together and back up.”
People have called and emailed his business to complain, he said.
“It’s not just Vermont,” Rice said, adding he’s also had complaints from New York state residents who don’t like the signs.
Besides automobile tires, Rice sells logging skidder and farm tires throughout Vermont and northern New York, going to sites to install the tires.
Online, opponents in the Green Mountain State are quoting 10 V.S.A. § 488, the Vermont Billboard Ban Law, and saying they will report the signs to state and local authorities.
“It shouldn’t be difficult for any Good Samaritan to remove in less than five minutes with a good wire cutter,” one wrote.
Another said, “So here’s what I’m thinking: we take a little trip over to New York state, see, and we have ourselves a conversation.”
One post threatened sign burning but has since been deleted.
Many Vermont opponents said they reacted to the signs because they advertise a New York state business in Vermont.
Alixandra Wojewodzic of Moriah is one of Rice’s customers.
“People are literally threatening his business and his well-being all because he put up advertisements,” she said. “His phone has been ringing off the hook (with complaints). People are trespassing and tearing them down.”
Rice said the signs were put up because his business, which opened in April 2024, is off the main roads and he needed to get its message out.
“We sell tires and operate a full service auto garage,” he said. “It’s been very hard. How do you advertise a small business? We’re a small business trying to get noticed in the North Country.”
Rice Farm and Tires is himself and four employees, he said, and he’d like to expand.
“But people can’t find us.”