AGFC recognizes 5 for efforts to contain oil spill

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission honored five employees Thursday who were instrumental in minimizing damage to Lake Conway from the oil spill last spring in Mayflower.

The commission awarded certificates of appreciation to District 10 fisheries biologists Tom Bly, Matt Horton and Matt Schroeder; regional maintenance supervisor Mike Walker and assistant wildlife supervisor Matt Mourot. The five formed a rapid response team that was on site soon after the spill was reported. They were credited with preventing most of the oil from entering Lake Conway’s main body and for documenting the biological impact of oil contamination.

“Had these individuals not performed as they did, Lake Conway would have been forever changed,” said Mike Knoedl, the AGFC’s director. “While it was bad, these gentlemen made it to where it wasn’t near as catastrophic as it would have been.”

In administrative business, the commission approved creating new lifetime hunting and fishing licenses for disabled veterans. Act 1253 of the General Assembly authorized issuing lifetime licenses to Arkansas residents who are permanently disabled service-connected veterans.

To qualify for the discounted licenses, they must either be 100 percent disabled or have received the Purple Heart medal.

Mike Armstrong, assistant director, said the price of the resident disabled military veteran lifetime fishing license will be $1.50, as will the equivalent hunting license. The resident disabled military veteran lifetime combination license will be $3.

“We’re recommending this to recognize the sacrifices disabled veterans made in service to their country,” Armstrong said.

In another license-related matter, the commission declined to create a new resident fishing license for nonresidents who own or maintain property in Arkansas. Edward Kimbrough, a North Little Rock native who lives in Texas, asked the commission at its October meeting to allow nonresidents who own property in Arkansas to purchase resident fishing licenses. Kimbrough owns a vacation home on Lake Conway.

“For licenses purposes, you can only claim residence in just one state,” Armstrong said, explaining the staff ’s justification for denying the request.

“You can’t vote for governor in two states, and you can’t have driver’s licenses for two states. He [Kimbrough] can claim residency in Arkansas, but he chooses not to.

“We’d have to create a special class for nonresident licenses, and then create criteria for that, and then determine thresholds of criteria. The staff’s recommendation is that we decline Mr. Kimbrough’s request.”

Sports, Pages 27 on 11/22/2013

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