I have written a great deal about how our city and county are at the mercy of our state Legislature for many of the things local people feel will be good for those of us who live here. We must often go to the Legislature to get approval to do things we have determined will be beneficial for our citizens, and this procedure historically, always worked for us.

The past few years, however, we have found that our local issues have caught the attention of folks outside our city and county who wish to exercise control over us for some reason.

Our county and city had legislation introduced into the Legislature this year which, if passed, would eventually allow the citizens of Limestone County to vote for or against annexation from outside cities into Limestone County.

Our County Commission also had legislation introduced into the Legislature this year which, if passed, would give the County Commission power to regulate the location of a rock quarry in Limestone County.

Our annexation bills will never be voted on in the full House and Senate because three members of our local legislative delegation, Sen. Arthur Orr, Rep. Mac McCutcheon, and Rep. Micky Hammon, will not sign off on the bills.

These are our legislators, elected to serve constituents in Limestone County, who are catering to the cities of Huntsville, Madison, and Decatur because they live there, and do not live in Limestone County.

Because of the stand these three gentlemen have taken against our local bills, the city of Huntsville annexed 5,000 more acres of Limestone County last Thursday night, and announced they will build a school there, which will affect the Limestone County and Athens school systems.

David Seibert, County Commission chairman, and I testified last Tuesday in a public hearing before the local Legislative committee, which is ultimately responsible for voting to give a bill a favorable status report, and send it out as a local bill. Senators sitting on this committee were Arthur Orr from Decatur, Harri Anne Smith from Slocomb, Lowell Barron from Fyffe, Hank Sanders from Selma, Pat Lindsey from Butler, Roger Bedford from Russellville, and the chairman, Zeb Little from Cullman.

Several other people testified for this legislation and explained the many reasons why local people need to be in control of our own community. The Rogers Group, which owns the rock quarry, had Billy Norell, director of the Alabama Road Builders Association, testify against the bills. I don’t know where Billy lives, but his office is in Montgomery, and his salary is paid by companies who do business with rock quarries.

I felt the real slap-in-the-face for us happened when the Rogers Group brought in Stacy George, a Morgan County commissioner, to testify how well Rogers Group operates a quarry in his district in Morgan County. If you don’t know Commissioner Stacy George, just look at the back issues of The Decatur Daily to see the controversies in which he has been involved during the years he has been in office.

He has so many problems to work with in Morgan County that he shouldn’t have time to travel to Montgomery at the behest of the Rogers Group to testify against the Limestone County Commission’s local bills. This is another example of people outside our county feeling comfortable about interjecting themselves into the business of our local community.

Before the vote took place, senators Bedford and Lindsey left the room, saying they had to attend a Medicaid meeting for a vote, and never returned.

When the vote came, senators Orr and Smith voted for our bills. Senators Barron, Sanders, and Little voted against our bills. That means the bills will not be local bills, and will never come to the Senate floor for a vote. They are dead.

Three senators, who live in Cullman, Fyffe, and Selma, made a decision which affected the lives of people living in the area surrounding Tanner, and I’m sure they have never been to this area, and couldn’t care less about it.

It is disappointing that we have to go to Montgomery with our hats in our hands to beg folks who do not know us or anything about where we live, to do things for us. This is not the way things should be, and I hope our community can begin to see how unfair this is to us, and rise up against it.