House, Senate OK raft of legislation

The House and Senate approved other bills Thursday, including:

• House Bill 1001 by Rep. Mat Pitsch, R-Fort Smith, and Senate Bill 4 by Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs.

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The legislation is aimed at making the state's open-container law that prohibits alcohol in a motor vehicle conform to federal law. Without the changes in state law, the state Department of Transportation would be limited to using about $12 million in federal highway construction and maintenance funds for safety purposes only starting in the federal fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2018, according to a department spokesman.

• House Bill 1009 by Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle, and Senate Bill 3 by Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale.

The legislation retools a 3-year-old cap on school-choice transfers.

Lowery said Wednesday that trouble has arisen in some school districts after a 2015 law setting the 3 percent cap on transfers in each school district only counted sibling groups as one student. That caused some school districts to go over their caps, he said, and this measure would only count siblings as a single child if doing otherwise would send the school district over the cap, requiring the family to send its children to separate schools.

• House Bill 1003 by Rep. John Maddox, R-Mena, and Senate Bill 1 by Sen. Larry Teague, D-Nashville, that changes state law regarding operation of an all-terrain vehicle on a public street or highway.

Teague said the bill "basically changes the distance that you can ride on a county road from trailhead to trailhead from 3 miles to trailhead to trailhead."

The legislation is needed because the Legislature limited the distance an all-terrain vehicle driver could ride from trailhead to trailhead to 3 miles in 2017 and that "really hurt Mena, got us a bad rap in the ATV forums and there are lots of communities who live on those people coming to the town and riding those trails," Teague said.

• House Bill 1005 by Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, and Senate Bill 7 by Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch.

The measures would no longer require the state Building Authority Division in the state Department of Finance and Administration to approve design and construction plans for unpaved trail projects on property under the control and management of the state Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission. Under the bill, these unpaved projects would have to be used solely for recreational purposes or to carry out the commission's mission and have donated labor, services and commodities.

The bills would require the Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission to ensure that these unpaved trail projects meet the standards for observation by registered professionals established by the division.

-- Michael R. Wickline