By MICHAEL A. SAWYERS
Times West Virginian
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A spokesman for West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Thursday afternoon that the bill passed to legalize hunting on Sundays on private land will be signed.
“The governor is all for Sunday hunting,” said Carl “Butch” Antolini, Justice’s director of communication. “Unless there is some technical issue that pops up with the wording, he will sign it.”
Hunting on Sundays on private lands in West Virginia awaits only the governor’s signature to become a reality in all 55 counties.
A bill to make it so passed the House on Thursday with a 92-5 vote. It had already been approved in the Senate.
Hunting on private lands requires written consent.
The bill eliminates an amoeba-like Sunday hunting structure that was morphing from year to year, based upon old law that allowed voters in each county to decide about hunting on Sundays.
Entering this legislative session, 33 of the state’s 55 counties had approved those hunts.
It was still not legal to hunt on Sundays in the Potomac Highland counties of Hardy, Hampshire, Grant and Mineral. In the Eastern Panhandle, only Jefferson County had allowed Sunday hunts.
Justice can change that with the stroke of his pen. According to the legislative website, the governor has five days to veto or sign once he receives the bill.
Mike Sawyers is a staff writer and the outdoor editor at Cumberland (Maryland) Times-News, a sister newspaper of the Times West Virginian.
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