The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 21

23o0ton Sunbay 25lobc i Opinion 2 Around the Towns 3 Business 7 Holiday Gift Ideas 8 People Places 16 Sports 19 1 A South 4ffljijjBfc 'Out of nowhere came this deer. didn't have time to put on the brakes. DICKZACCARDI Bigger herd, hormones cited as deer collisions soar MBTA set to expand station parking dom collisions is sharply on the rise. By Alexander Reid GLOBE STAFF Middleborough Police Lieutenant Judith Wiksten said five deer-car accidents were re ported on the Nov. 6-7 weekend in her town, couldn't stop for another 100 feet.

I got out and saw the poor animal limp into the woods. It was so sudden." Deer collisions like Zaccardi's are becoming much more commonplace on the region's roads these days. While no one keeps deer accident statistics, police departments and state officials have a number of anecdotes suggesting that the frequency of these ran Zaccardi, as he drove along Route 53 from his Hanover office to his home in Duxbury. "I was driving, going about 40 miles an hour," recalled Zaccardi, who said he still is shaken by the sudden encounter that night. "I was on the Pembroke-Duxbury line," he said.

"Out of nowhere came this deer. It was right in front of my car. I didn't have time to put on the brakes. I hit it and three of them on Route 44. "Things are bad," said Wiksten, the de You're driving along a wooded stretch at night, eyes focused ahead.

Quick as a flash, a brown streak bolts across the road, too fast for you to hit the brakes. WHACK! You've hit a deer. That's what happened Nov. 3 to Dick partment's commanding officer. "The deer are either running into the path of an oncom-DEER, Page 11 By Robert Preer GLOBE CORRESPONDENT The race to the train station before the last parking spot is taken has become a stress-filled pre-dawn ritual for more and more commuters south of Boston.

A boom in commuter rail ridership has filled many parking lots in the region to overflowing and brought traffic jams and illegal parking to the host communities. State transportation agencies now have set out on a race of their own: To add more parking spaces at stations across the region. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority plans to expand by more than a third the parking at the Halifax and 1 if MiddleboroughLa-keville stations the two most overcrowded stations on the Old Colony Railroad. Construction is to start early next year and be completed by fall. Construction crews now are finishing work on the MBTA's four-story, garage at the Route 128 station where Dedham, Westwood, and Canton meet.

The MBTA and the Greater Attle-boro Transit Authority are designing projects that would double the parking at the Mansfield station and add a 782-car 'We have had big problems. If you are not there by 7:30, the lot is full. People are parking in front of homes. There is a dirt road next to an old nursery, so people are parking in the TROY GARRON, Halifax selectman 1 vv I i ff garage at the Attle-boro station. In Sharon, the town is planning a 102-space addition GLOBE STAFF PHOTO JONATHAN WIGGS Dennis Slaughter feels the rhythm as he leads the Snug Harbor Community Chorus in Duxbury at a rehearsal for their gospel and pops holiday concert next month.

Called to sing, choir director spreads gospel to a residents-only parking lot at the Sharon commuter rail stop, while the MBTA is eyeing possible expansion of the Abington and Whitman train parking lots. "We are moving aggressively to increase parking at commuter rail stations," said MBTA spokesman Brian Pedro. "It's not By Judith Montminy GLOBE CORRESPONDENT easy. You can't just say, This is a good place for a parking lot' The new spaces cannot come soon enough for both commuters and the host Infuses a suburban chorus with soulful style of music this beautiful experience." Slaughter earns his living as an organizer for the National Education Association, but he says gospel music is his ministry. "Each of us has a calling, and mine is music," he said.

To that end, Slaughter, who lives in Milton, helped start the predominantly white Milton Gospel Choir last year. This year he's making his second foray into the south suburbs by working with the all-white Snug Harbor Community Chorus in Duxbury to prepare them for their gospel and pops holiday concert next month. Slaughter's own, largely African-American Boston Community Choir (known as the Boston Pops Community Gospel Choir when it sings at Symphony Hall) and the Duxbury group will sing together and independently at the concert. Tomorrow the two choruses will meet for the first time for their dress rehearsal at Memorial Hall in GOSPEL MUSIC, Page 18 communities. "We have had big problems," said Hali Dennis Slaughter is a man on a mission to spread the joy of gospel music to all, including folks accustomed to sitting reverently still when there is church music in the air.

"Gospel is a part of Americana," said Slaughter, 39, a veteran gospel choir leader. "For many years it was thought of as only belonging to African-American people. I do not want to close anyone out from fax Selectman Troy E. Garron. "If you are not there by 7:30, the lot is full.

People are parking in front of homes. There is a dirt PARKING, Page 12 Towns ringing in the millennium i By Karen Hayes GLOBE CORRESPONDENT 'This is a celebration to last a lifetime, because it is the millennium and none of us are going to see the next one, unfortunately. DON OLSON member of Braintree Millennium Celebration Committee jr i 1 i 1 I It Unlike many of its neighbors, Duxbury has never held a town-sponsored New Year's Eve bash. But this year, the town is ringing in the new year in a big way. The town's millennium celebration was officially launched last weekend 48 days before the year 2000 makes its debut.

And the party won't stop there. "We have been charged by selectmen to prepare a calendar that goes from this weekend to January 2001," said Barbara Leahey, a Duxbury 2000 steering committee member and co-chair of its kickoff event, a performance of "The Millennium Requiem." -IliJL Braintree, another town that has never gone for municipal out-with-the-old send-offs, is planning a three-day affair in honor of the Y2K event. In a move away from New Year's Eve binges geared toward people between 21 and 40, the celebration will be for all ages, with afternoon and early-evening parties scheduled for the elderly and teens. Sharon, which has held a 4 p.m. to midnight First Night celebration on New Year's Eve the last four years, is switching this year to an earlier, family-friendly "First Light" fete from noon to 10 p.m.

on New Year's Day, 2000. Millennium madness has hit the south suburbs, and everybody's partying like it's 1999. After all, organizers agree, it is not just any new year. "This is a celebration to last a lifetime," said Don Olson, a member MILLENNIUM, Page 15 GLOBE STAFF PHOTO JANET KNOTT STACKS NAP Three-month-old Jack Bourikas snoozed while brother, James, looked for books in the children's room at the new Thayer Public Library. Their mother, Janet, took them to the Braintree library's opening ceremonies.

Page 3. Reporting on: Abington Avon Braintree Bridgewater Brockton Canton Carver Cohasset Dedham Duxbury East Bridgewater Easton Foxborough Halifax Hanover Hanson Hingham Holbrook Hull Kingston Lakeville Mansfield Marshfield Middleborough Milton Norton Norwell Norwood Pembroke Plymouth Plympton Quincy Randolph Raynham Rockland Scituate Sharon Stoughton Walpole West Bridgewater Westwood Weymouth WTiitman.