Applications for Farm 911 signage are now available online on the website for the Township of West Lincoln.
West Lincoln is one of many municipalities in the Niagara region to adopt the Farm 911 project; which mandates numbered signage for farmland, vacant plots or otherwise unmarked areas.
The purpose of this signage is to give residents a specified and more accurate address to give to first responders in case of emergency, especially in rural areas with little development.
The Farm 911 signage will be yellow with black letters and costs $125 per stake. The sign will be installed by West Lincoln staff and the 911 number will be assigned in accordance with West Lincoln’s municipal addressing policy.
The official adoption of this happened at a May 25 West Lincoln council meeting.
Coun. Cheryl Ganann said farms in West Lincoln can often be so large that the regular municipal address is sometimes not specific enough to where residents might need help.
She said that many in the community have also started farming on properties they do not live on, in some cases tearing down any houses or development on that property to make room for more farming area, making it even more difficult for first responders to find them.
“We’re very hopeful that this directs emergency staff to a precise location of the individual's property,” Ganann said.
Farm 911: The Emily Project was named after Emily Trudeau, a seven-year-old girl who died in a farming accident in Hastings County in 2014 after first responders struggled to find her farm in time because it lacked a marked address.
- Moosa Imran, Local Journalism Initiative, Grimsby Lincoln News
