Vineyard sign is all about crushing grapes, not cars

A sign showing a safer way to Prospect Hill Winery on a recent Sunday at the start of Orrills HIll at Five Corners. (Lebanon Voice/Harrison Thorp)

WEST LEBANON - Richard Carle of Lebanon has a new Sunday routine.

In the summer when Prospect Hill Winery is open to the public he gets up early in the morning and plants a sign at the south end of Orrills Hill Road warning vineyard visitors not to try to navigate the rut-strewn, boulder-festooned road to get to the winery.

"It saves me from having people calling me from the top of the hill," said Carle, who owns the vineyard with his wife, Anita, a longtime Hanson School kindergarten teacher.

Carle said many visitors are directed to use the road by GPS systems, often summertime visitors in rental cars.

Even State Police cruisers have been known to be ensnared.

The sign directs visitors down Shapleigh Road (which is no smoothie), to Dixon Road and Schoolhouse Lane to Orrills Hill.

The road drew controversy on whether it should be improved several years ago after an ATVer was injured at the north end of the unimproved section, a 100-foot portion that is especially impassable.

Both ends of the road are town maintained for about a half-mile, but in the middle a mile or so stretch is barely passable at best.

At the northern end where Prospect Hill Winery is, about 100 feet prior to the maintained portion is in the worst shape, bad enough to do serious damage to passenger car undercarriages.

Carle said he thinks it would be helpful for the town to put up a sign that says "Hazardous Road" or "Impassable Road" but for now, he says his homemade sign at least gives vineyard visitors the information they need to get to his business safely.

Meanwhile, the ownership of the road has been up for debate for years. Some say the town owns it, while others say the landowners do.

Many on the road fret that the true ownership won't be decided until lawyers figure it out after a serious accident on the road causes liability issues.

For now, however, Carle does his part trying to give motorists a heads-up, at least on Sunday.

"Being a private sign, I don't think it's right keeping it up all week," said Carle, who did the artwork himself.

To read a 2012 article on the winery from The Lebanon Voice on its previous website, click here.