The Arkansas Highway Commission, which has been under attack recently by the Arkansas Trucking Assn., was a key topic at the group's annual meeting last week in Little Rock.

During the recently finished state legislative session, the trucking association lobbied for a bill that would have changed the way the commission was set up. The bill, which failed, would have increased the number of commissioners from five to eight, and had them elected rather than appointed by the governor.
But the group isn't giving up. According to The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, during a closed meeting during the convention, the association's board of directors asked President Lane Kidd to investigate financing a petition drive to get the proposed amendment on the next ballot. Otherwise, they'll have to wait until 2003 until the issue can again be considered by the state's General Assembly.
That wasn't the only time the highway commission was discussed. In what Kidd called a first, the state Highway Commission sent a letter to the association's directors inviting them to meet and discuss problems on the state's highways.
John Lipton, chairman of the Highway Commission, told the Democrat-Gazette that in the eight years he's been on the panel, they've never sat down to meet with the trucking association. The association accepted the invitation.
Gov. Mike Huckabee defended the commission during a luncheon speech. "The commission more than ever before understands they are going to have to be more customer-oriented with the general public, with the drivers, whether they are driving 18-wheelers or four-wheelers," he said.
Huckabee said he encouraged the commission to invite the association's board of directors to meet with commissioners, and predicted that the trucking industry would no longer be "demonized .. and instead will be appreciated as an important part of our economy." He asked truckers to give the commission a chance, but said the trucking industry would need "Job-like patience" on the state's highways during the next five years as construction kicks into high gear.
State Sen. Bill Gwatney, on the other hand, told the association that the aggravations of highway construction will give the proposal to elect state highway commissioners a better chance in a few years. The Democrat is considering whether to seek his party's nomination for governor next year to challenge the Republican Huckabee.
Gwatney said he doubted that the trucking association's board would have gotten the invitation to meet with the commissioners without the pressure of the proposed constitutional amendment, which he sponsored.