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Puppy Raisers visit Kingston Fire Department

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Girl Scouts receive Silver Award

I am writing to voice my opposition to House Bill 231, which removes the issuance of antlerless hunting licenses from the county treasurers.House Bill 231 is a one-page bill that changes the authorized issuing agents from the county treasurers to the Pennsylvania Game Commission or by &#8220;agents designated by the director&#8221; of the commission using the Pennsylvania Automated Licensing System. That&#8217;s all the bill says. The Game Commission has no plan in place that describes how it or its &#8220;designated agents&#8221; will implement the processing of over 700,000 antlerless licenses each year.Who might the director of the Game Commission choose as a designated agent? Big-box stores? Treasurer&#8217;s Offices across the commonwealth have cleaned up and corrected hunter profile problems in the Pennsylvania Automated Licensing System that are too numerous to count. Many of the problems are caused by other issuing agents like the big-box stores, whose staff is untrained and unversed in the hunting laws &#8211; unlike the County Treasurer&#8217;s staff.A news brief printed Oct. 21 in the Times Leader quotes state Rep. Gerald Mullery as saying that hunters should be able to obtain an antlerless license online. If only the Internet is utilized, it will discriminate against the elderly, the Amish and others in the commonwealth who do not have Internet access.The potential loss of revenue to Pennsylvania&#8217;s counties is considerable. Over $700,000 a year. It will cause expenses to rise for every county (and their taxpayers) involved in the process. Who will the Game Commission select to make that profit? Big-box stores? Or will the commission be hiring and training more staff? Who will help our active military personnel home on leave?The county Treasurers&#8217; Offices across the commonwealth play an essential role in the issuance of antlerless hunting licenses. HB 231 will dismantle the system of customer service and assistance provided by the treasurers through the antlerless license process.The home rule charter adopted by the voters of Luzerne County removed all licensing from the Treasurer&#8217;s Office. Licensing became its own department in October 2013. Yes, our county struggled with the antlerless licensing process in 2014. Many lessons were learned, and this year the process went very smoothly. An established, successful and properly administered process should not be cast aside because one county failed to adequately administer the process one time.I respectfully ask our elected representatives in the state House of Representatives to cast a no vote opposing HB 231. Our hunters are counting on you!Laura BeersManagerLuzerne County Treasurer&#8217;s Office

Letter to the Editor: Hunters, speak up in favor of preserving system for issuing doe licenses