By By LYDIA GRIMES Feature Reporter
The season is about to start for deer hunting with a gun and this week's profile subject is gearing up for a busy time.
Sergeant Frank Reid is the local Conservation Enforcement agent, or game warden. He expects to be very busy the next few weeks. It is his job to see that the laws are obeyed by all the hunters out there in the woods.
Most people living in South Alabama are either hunters themselves or know of one, and the orange jackets will be everywhere in the woods looking for the right deer who is the biggest and the best. Everyone who hunts wants to bag the largest one they can, sometimes for the meat and sometimes for the bragging rights.
But the thing that interests Frank Reid is the safety of both hunters and the wild game. Both have to be protected.
That is where the local game warden comes in. He has a job that really has no set hours and his place of work is in the woods. He enforces the laws of the state just as any other policeman does, but one thing is very different. Most of the people he has to apprehend are just as well armed as he is. This makes his job very dangerous.
Reid is able to work out of his home, but his hours are terrible. He sometimes works in the mornings, sometimes in the afternoon and many times at night.
While some of the statistics are not encouraging, there are some positive things about being a game warden.
For someone who likes being out of doors, it is the perfect job. He can put in as much time as he wishes in the woods.
Some of the things that make it a dangerous job are also the things that make it a good job for the outdoorsman.
He has no set hours of work. Sometimes he goes to work early in the morning and then comes home for a while.
He can even take a nap if he is so inclined. Then he may go back out at night. At the time of this interview he was planning to go to the W.S. Neal football game and then go to the woods to do some night work.
In his capacity as game warden, Reid has the right to go on any property, both public and private.
He believes that the wildlife and their territory should be protected, not abused.
His job includes reports that are sent to the Montgomery office of the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (DWFF).
Money to operate the department comes from the sale of hunting licenses, and fines and taxes on some hunting equipment.
Reid was born in Brewton and graduated from W.S. Neal in 1972. He grew up in a medium-size family and always had a love for the outdoors.
He loved to hunt and fish as a youngster.
After graduation from high school, he attended Jefferson Davis Community College and received an associate's degree in criminal justice, and worked at Robbin's and McGowin's in downtown Brewton.
On Christmas day of 1977 he went to work as a jailer and then as a deputy with the Escambia County Sheriff's Department. He worked there for about three years during the time Scotty Byrne was the sheriff.
He got a job in Montgomery with Citicorp Acceptance for about a year.
He then got a chance to go to work with the DWFF.
He was assigned to Sumter County and lived at Livingston for the next three years. During this time he married Sandra Busey, a local girl from Brewton, in 1991.
They now have two children, Allison who is 11 and Tyler who is seven.
After leaving Sumter County, Reid worked for four years in Monroe County before finally getting the assignment to come back to Brewton in 1998.
His wife is a third grade teacher at W.S. Neal and his children attend the Brewton schools.
Reid likes the outdoors and sports. His children are involved in playing sports and he gets into helping with coaching them with various things.
When he has the time he loves to squirrel hunt with his dog, Brummy, and he likes to watch sports on television.