Shortly after the Chronicle published today’s story on two accidents caused by deer crossing the highway, Northeast Kingdom public access TV journalist Steve Merrill responded to the story with this helpful comment:
“ATTENTION! For about $10 you can buy self-attaching stick on deer whistles that STOP them in their tracks. I saw them when I lived in Pa. where there’s 5X the deer as here & there was 2 kinds of vehicles, those w/whistles & those that hit deer. For $10 you can SAVE a LOT of grief & auto body work or worse, even order them online too..You get them in a pair, peel off & attach to the front bumper, VERY simple & they WORK!”
Steve’s right. I bought one of those after my Subaru got up close and personal with doe in Waterville. Picked the fur out of the grill, pasted on the whistles, and never had a problem again.
At noon on Tuesday, Gov. Scott will give his first Montpelier-based press conference in about a month. I’ll be there, asking the most relevant questions I can think of. But Steve won’t – he earned the dubious honor of getting booted off of the press conference queue because, the governor and his press people said, he’s not a “real” journalist. He’s missed. Glad to see he’s still PAYING ATTENTION and giving Vermonters useful information. Steve, we thank you, the deer thank you. – Editor