Carl Albert College reps visit capitol

Carl Albert College reps visit capitol

By Rep. RICK WEST

Several people from Carl Albert State College (See STORY) visited the Capitol last week to attend a luncheon recognizing our rural colleges. This school does a terrific job educating our young people.

I got to visit with several students who were recognized for their academic achievements.

Sadie Bridges won an Oklahoma Association of Community Colleges President Tuition Waiver; Brady Allen and Brandi Woods were part of the All-Oklahoma Academic Team.

The $1,000 tuition waiver is awarded to select students from across the state for their outstanding academic achievement and their leadership ability. Academic team members are nominated by their college presidents. To be eligible, students must hold a minimum of a 3.50 cumulative grade point average out of a possible 4.0 on all college-level coursework completed in the past five years.

I and Sen. George Burns presented these students with citations recognizing their accomplishments. This is a great part of my job.

I also had the opportunity to meet with Carl Albert President Jay Falkner and talk about some of his concerns for higher education.

Also last week, I passed several Senate bills in the House Agriculture Committee.

Senate Bill 1442 would extend permit renewals for poultry waste applications from one year to five years for $75. This is a request bill from several constituents in our House district who say this will be much more convenient than having to renew each year.

Senate Bill 1963 would allow those who engage in the on-farm sale of donkey milk to advertise their product as such. Up until now, goat milk was the only raw milk that could be advertised. Believe it or not, this is a freedom of speech issue.

On a final note, I’m working with my colleague, Rep. Ellyn Hefner from Oklahoma City, in finalizing plans for our recognition of the 29th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  This year, we have invited Secretary Blayne Arthur to speak. Her mother was murdered in this act of terrorism. We also will recognize several House and Senate sergeants who were called in to help in the recovery efforts after the bombing.

This is the sixth year that I’ve helped in remembering this horrific event. It’s important to me because our younger generation has no real knowledge of what happened or the danger that this could ever happen again on U.S. soil. Our new speaker designate in the House, for instance, is only 30 years old, so he would have been a baby at the time the bombing occurred. We must keep telling this story so this kind of history never repeats itself in our state.

As always, if I can help you with anything, feel free to call my Capitol office at (405) 557-7413 or email me at [email protected].

Rick West serves District 3 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes part of LeFlore County.