The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission may be nearing a decision on selection of a new director. Current director Loren Hitchcock has announced retirement plans (in part because of ongoing turmoil related to the Commission’s heavy involvement the Commission take in administrative affairs).
Some 15 applicants were judged qualified for a further look in late July and a good source tells us that number has been winnowed down, with current Deputy Director Michael Knoedl being seen as a favorite of some commissioners.
A decision could begin emerging from a personnel committee meeting Wednesday, Oct. 24, and a final decision Thursday, Oct. 25.
But you never know. There’s some resistance to Knoedl among agency staff and others. There are reports, too, that Hitchcock would like to stay on. From here nothing is certain except that the constitutional amendment that supposedly took Game and Fish out of politics merely substituted politics of a different form.