Civic and Government Affairs committee seeks to keep citizens first

By Martin Couch

Within the Bryant Chamber of Commerce, the Civic and Government Affairs committee works on everything related to government regulations and highways concerning Bryant and Saline County.[more]

“Gosh, in the past year we have been busy,” Chamber executive director Rae Ann Fields said. “We were federally focused last year. In my previous years, we have been more local and state focused, but we wrote letters on health care reform and how it would effect small business, cap and trade which is legislation some people touted as clean air legislation that essentially rewarded states with renewable resources and penalized states that didn’t have them by upping the electrical rates 30 percent.”

Arkansas has hydroelectric plants, but they are not considered to be renewable resources like wind and solar energy.

“They did not recognize hydroelectric, because the legislation didn’t want streams dammed, so we wrote letters about that and unionization,” Fields said. “We disagreed with that, but years ago, we worked to get an on ramp at the Springhill Road access.”

The committee has also taken stances on school issues as well.

“Currently we are very concerned about the city pursuing Raymar Road extensions on both sides — the land to extend it north to Highway 5 and south to the airport — and it seems to be going slowly,” Fields said.

“Our goal is to work for the citizens of Bryant," she concluded.

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