Lee Erwin reporting
lerwin@clarksvillenow.com
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Each year the Legislative Liaison Committee of the Montgomery County Commission offers a wish list of sorts to Tennessee State lawmakers in hopes the items on the Legislative Agenda, as it’s called, will make its way to the State Legislature.
At a reception Tuesday, December 9, members of the committee presented their agenda items to the local state legislative delegation of lawmakers made up of State Representatives Curtis Johnson, Joe Pitts and John Tidwell. Because of a prior commitment State Senator Mark Green was unable to attend the reception.
The Legislative Liaison Committee is made of Commissioner Ron Sokol, Keith Politi, Mark Riggins, Nick Robards and Robeert Nichols. The items listed in the agenda were collected by the committee over about the last three months from ideas and input from members of the public in Montgomery County.
Committee Chairman Ron Sokol talked about the work of the state legislators for Montgomery County. “I’d like to thank each of you for your assistance in the past few years. We have had great success and you have had a positive impact on this community with things we have managed to accomplish,” Sokol said.
The first item on the Legislative Agenda asked for the local legislative delegation to support proposed Senate Bill 279 requiring a referendum of the residents of an area before it can be annexed.
Some of the other items on the legislative agenda include a request for the state legislature to consider increasing the reimbursement rate of Tennessee Department of Corrections inmates being held in the Montgomery County Jail.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation is being encouraged to fund road projects on Warfield Boulevard and Trenton Road. The agenda also asks for a traffic study of the I-24 interchange at Exit 4 to help increase safety and relieve congestion.
There is also a request for a law to prevent the use of animals when they are used by individuals to protect criminal activity and a law to ban smoking outside buildings on county property. It is currently illegal to smoke inside county buildings.
Health and safety is a concern and the legislative agenda is seeking support for an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) in all public and nonpublic schools and establishing an emergency plan for responding with an AED to cardiac arrest situations.
Another item which has been on the list for state lawmakers for a number of years is to work for further development of nearby Port Royal State Park. One request is for signs along I-24 at Exit 11 to make more travelers aware of the park.
After the reception, State Representative Joe Pitts talked about the list of items on the Montgomery County Commission’s Legislative Agenda. “What we’ll do is take this list and begin to kind of massage it and put together some ideas for legislation and see where we get next year in January when we reconvene,” Pitts said.