Kinda Funny, Outdated Message Shows Up on Montana Highway Sign

This guy must have escaped the inferno and been driving back from the Griz football game in Eastern Washington or something. I got a random message from one of our radio listeners:

"Driving back to Montana over lookout pass there was a highway reader board with the message “ do your part, stand 6 feet apart”. What the heck is that about?" (Dom, Kalispell - 09/29 @ 20:28pm)

Did this happen? Is outdated signage still showing up on our state's highways? The state isn't still pushing that absurd COVID guidance that they pushed under the former governor, are they?

I figured, what the heck- why not reach out to the state?

Charity Burns, a Public Information Officer with the Montana Department of Transportation was thankfully very quick to respond:

"Thanks for reaching out.  This has been an on-going problem. The Lookout Pass sign at the state line changes to this message upon power loss. We’ve tried to correct the default message it reverts to without success . We’ll pass this info on to our comms bureau staff again and keep working to correct it. We will confirm this morning the message is no longer displaying."

I joked about this story on the radio Monday morning. Even though the whole 6 feet distance guidelines (much like school shutdowns and mask mandates) were never based in science...I never had a problem with the whole 6 foot distance thing. We just didn't want the government telling us to do it.

This is Montana- we like our space. It's called Big Sky Country for a reason. So- if you're standing in line behind a Montanan at the grocery store...or at an airport...or wherever...give em their space. Us Iraq/Afghan veterans appreciate the distance too.

Oh yeah. And thankfully we have a new governor now.

By the way, I saw a GREAT highway sign just outside of Billings this morning. PREACH!