Remote Stores To Get Licensing Computers State Finds Solution To Link Sites For Hunting, Fishing Permits

A week after telling several remote North Idaho stores they’d be shut out of the new system for licensing hunters and anglers, state officials say they’ve managed to solve much of the problem.

The news caused sighs of relief among store owners, who worried they’d lose huge chunks of their business if they were unable to write licenses.

Now, state officials say four of the seven stores will be on-line by mid-January, missing the computer system’s start-up by only about three weeks.

The reason: the phone company, GTE, is rushing to install special equipment.

“I’m really pleased that GTE came up with a solution,” said Steve Barton, administration bureau chief for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

“It’s going to be a real benefit for everybody.”

At Babin’s Store, high up the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River, owner Rich Babin was relieved.

Licenses are essential to the store’s survival, he said. Sportsmen and anglers buy licenses - and food, beer, pop and so on.

“It’s probably 30 percent of our business,” he said.

Stores in Rose Lake, Cataldo and Coolin also will be hooked up by Jan. 15, if not sooner, Barton said.

The Naples General Store must wait until May, and two stores in Garfield Bay must wait until June, he said.

To get to Garfield Bay, he said, GTE will lay 50,000 feet of cable.

All of the improvements, he said, are being paid for by GTE.

The current licensing system requires paper forms.

Barton said Fish and Game is computerizing the system to get faster data from the field and to save accounting work for stores.

For sportsmen, the computers make it much easier to reissue lost licenses.

The state is picking up most of the tab for the computers, phone lines and special software.

Total price is about $1.4 million.

, DataTimes