A "Blackout" For Sportsman (T1)

A switchover from DEC’s current sporting license sales system to a new automated offering will necessitate a blackout of the system, likely in the coming days. During that time, sportsmen and women won’t be able to purchase licenses or report their deer or bear harvests, DEC officials said in an effort to alert hunters, anglers and trappers to the impending blackout. “We’re running through various scenarios right now,” DEC assistant director of fish, wildlife and marine resources Doug Stang said late last month. “It’s really difficult to say how long the system will be down. Obviously, we’re trying to minimize that period.” DEC officials held a telephone conference with the media late last month in an effort to get the word out to sportsmen of the coming blackout. There will be no opportunity for sporting license sales during that period – including lifetime licenses often purchased as Christmas gifts. Harvest reporting will also be unavailable during the blackout. That means successful big-game hunters will be unable to report their kills during the blackout. By law, those harvest reports must be made within seven days, but officials said hunters will be given a grace period due to the blackout. The changeover to a new system is the product of the state’s Shared Services Initiative, a plan introduced by then-Gov. David Paterson. All state agencies will eventually operate under a single E-licensing system, and with Verizon’s contract with DEC ending Dec. 31 Accela is developing what Stang called a “stepping stone” as they move into E-licensing, which will also be handled by Accela. Once the new system is up and running the previous estimates have indicated it will cost the DEC nearly $1 million annually to operate the new system once it’s up and running. This new system should be up and running soon if it isn’t up and running already.