The third and final Legislative Breakfast sponsored by the Clinton County Chamber of Commerce was held Saturday morning in Harmony Hall at Wesley Manor.
However, it does appear that the legislators are going to have to return for some unfinished business.
“We got quite a bit accomplished, but we’ve still got a lot to be done,” said State Senator Jim Buck. “I think the Governor is considering calling us back.”
Buck, along with State Senator Brian Buchanan, and State Representatives Don Lehe and Heath VanNatter recapped the previous session for those in attendance. Buck said the state is becoming more of a center for hi-tech businesses.
“California has a number of businesses wanting to relocate and we’re going after those,” said Buck.
Buck also touched on the topic of township government, which he said is going to affect a lot of places, especially in Clinton County. He said township governments need to become cost efficient.
“The work that township government does is so vast that for the economies of scale that’s there, but I don’t know how you could consolidate it in a larger sense and still have efficiency,” said Buck.”It always sounds good to say that if we consolidate it will get cheaper.”
Another topic of conversation was infrastructure, which Buck said is no longer just roads and bridges.
“Infrastructure is now telecommunications, fiber optics and it has to do with our water removal,” said Buck. “How are we going to handle flood issues with the new regulations on 500-year flood plains? We’ve got to figure out how do we handle water and how do we handle being able to transport communications that we’ve become accustomed to in rural areas?”