Farm machinery safety on the roads

Mailbox placement and a safety brochure covering rural roads are agenda items next week for the Oconee County Agricultural Advisory Board.  The problems that operators of farm machinery encounter as they maneuver on some of Oconee’s narrowest rural roads and highways have been brought to the attention recently of two county boards and commissions, with the hope that something can be done to protect everyone, the farmers and the general public.  Andy Whitten, a member of a farm family, says the problems include the placement of mailboxes close to the roads.  At the least, however, Whitten would like an effort to create better awareness of the plight of farm machine operators whose equipment sometimes dwarfs narrow roads, some of which have little or no shoulders.  The agricultural advisory board will meet at 4 o’clock Monday afternoon in the county council chambers at Walhalla.  The public is invited.