Some hunters may be victims of glitch in new DFW computers

Hunters who have not received a post card indicating if they drew a special Washington big-game hunting permit could be the victims of a glitch in the Department of Fish and Wildlife computer system.

Art Meikel, a Spokane hunter, became suspicious when he didn’t receive a card two weeks ago bearing news of whether he drew an elk permit in the statewide drawings.

Turns out, he was never entered in the drawing even though he was given a confirmation number after making his online application.

“Page 62 of the regulations pamphlet says a confirmation number will be issued only when the application goes into the system,” Meikel said. “But they’ve modified the program so that a confirmation number is no longer failsafe.

“I want this fixed,” he demanded. “They offered me a refund and an extra point for next year’s drawing, but that’s not very comforting when you’re 62 and you want to go hunting.”

Frank Hawley, the agency’s licensing systems manager, was not available for comment on Wednesday. His voicemail said he was frequently out of the office during the new computer system deployment.

However, computers shouldn’t get in the way this week at the Fish and Wildlife Department’s regional headquarters in Spokane. The agency is holding a rare old-fashioned hand drawing on Wednesday.

Hunters can buy as many $20 tickets as they want to apply for a coveted bighorn sheep permit good for Black Butte, Wenaha, and Mountain View units.

Applications are available online at www.wafnaws.com, but you must use the old reliable express mail delivery to get the paper entry delivered by the Monday deadline.