Clarksburg Farm Sees Loss in New Visitors with Bridge Closure
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — A generational farm is looking for new ways to keep people coming after a bridge closure has detoured traffic away.
Tanner's Farm is operated by fifth-generation owners Dan and Martha Tanner. They have a farm stand, scratch bakery, chicken and duck eggs, and pick your own flowers. They also recently installed a disc golf course with free play and discs to borrow, plus picnic tables and occasional food trucks. While previously a dairy and beef farm, they now also sell hay.
Also on the land is a pile of equipment for a temporary bridge — the reason they've seen traffic drop off.
The farm is located along Route 8, River Road, and has its regulars from around town, but also relies on customers that travel along the road during the summer months. Route 8 is a major connector to Vermont and scenic way especially during leaf-peeping season.
The state Department of Transportation announced the closure of River Road over the North Branch of the Hoosic River near the intersection of East Road to facilitate the installation of a temporary bridge over the existing Red Mills Bridge, following a bridge inspection that resulted in the failure of the 66-year-old bridge.
The closure began Monday, Aug. 10, and is expected to be done by Oct. 9. It will take years before the bridge itself is replaced.
Busy River Road is now very quiet, and the Tanners worry they will not see the same amount of customers they usually do.
"You can tell it's very quiet here. We have no traffic coming by. The only traffic we have is people who physically drive to us, which is almost the opposite of what we had before. You know, we had non-stop traffic, like constant, there was always a car on this road," Martha said.
"It's more or less it's just our dedicated, regular customers, which we're incredibly thankful for because they've been the ones who've helped support us in this time," said Dan. "I wouldn't say that we're necessarily we're not doing poorly, but we are certainly not doing any better in the sense of we've kind of plateaued right now when the time that we should be growing our most. We should have more visitors and more sales in the month of August and September than really than any other time because that's when we have the most to sell."
Their major concern is the fall foliage season and leaf peepers. Historically people stopped just to take photos with the Tanners' big red barn and the colorful foliage of the hills. Families would pull over, take pictures, and buy items. They fear that if the bridge isn't reopened by the scheduled date, it will seriously hurt what should be their strongest season.
To get to the farm, customers heading north have to detour around East or Middle Road and pass a blocked southbound lane on the north end of River Road. Drivers heading south may be unlikely to follow the "open" signs beyond the closed lane, instead turning right to continue to North Adams.
The closure also comes at the time the couple went all in with the farm being open and stocked more regularly than before. Martha said they feel as though the town failed them because of poor communication with the bridge closure.
"This is really our first year being all in. You know, like there's an actual open, fully stocked farm stand all the time. Last year it was more weekends, but we kind of we took the jump of really doing it this year, and I feel like the town failed us in the fact that we had no information leading up to the closure," she said.
She said they were aware of the announcement of the closure in February and then had heard nothing beyond that. She said they found out it happening when the owner of the construction company had reached out to them through social media about using their to park equipment, just two weeks before the closure.
With help from state Rep. John Barrett III, they were able to have a meeting with MassDOT officials who heard their request about a delaying the closure to Nov. 1 because it's their busiest time.
"They were receptive to what we were saying and understood our stance and how devastating it can be to a business, especially a new business. But it didn't change their mind, which is, I mean, I wasn't going into the meeting expecting that to happen, but you can always be hopeful, right?" Martha said. "And we understand the bridge has to be done. It's a safety concern. You know, we travel that route every day. Our kids travel that route on a bus. We want everyone to be safe, so we get it.
"But we just wish we had some time to plan a little bit ahead of time because we were really blindsided by it. We probably would have done things a little bit different for the fall had we known."
Dan noted any other time of the year would have been better even before in the spring but since it was an emergency declaration, it allowed MassDOT to bypass normal processes like public meetings and notices.
They worry that in about five years from now, when a new bridge is built, they might face another closure. They hope future work includes meetings and real input and can happen in winter or spring, not during the growing and foliage season.
"Obviously, they actually have to have meetings and such. This they declared an emergency, and in doing so, they got to forego all of the normal processes that would be involved in such a project. So they didn't have to have meetings. They didn't have to have notifications or anything like that. They just got to do it by simply calling it an emergency," said Dan. "So when they do put a new bridge in, we will have meetings and such. But it's just a matter of how receptive will they be, and how willing will they be to work with us if they're going to do another road closure."
With a drop in new visitors, they have looked at ways to get the word out that people can still see them as the sign at the end of the road can be a bit of a deterrent. They have put up signs around the detours saying they are still open and have leaned into doing more events at the farm.
The farm and farm stand is open anytime for baked goods, eggs, and a place to sit and enjoy the land.
"We're just trying to create a space for the community to come and enjoy themselves, and you know, get away from inside life and experience a little outside life," Martha said.
Tags: bridge project, farm stand, farming,
