Efforts to rewrite two complex, contentious bills - one regulating hunting and the other affecting lower-priced housing - are bringing both closer to final votes, possibly tomorrow night.
Consensus on stronger hunting laws seemed close, but exact wording remained elusive at the end of a three-hour County Council work session last week.
The bill arose after a hunter's slug broke a large window at the Kid's Time Out Day Care Center in Clarksville in December, frightening those inside the center, as well as the children's parents upon hearing of the incident.
Hunters complained, however, that County Executive Ken Ulman's proposed revision of the hunting rules went too far.
Councilman Greg Fox, a Fulton Republican and one of four council co-sponsors of Ulman's bill, offered amendments at Monday's work session that would impose a maximum $1,000 civil fine for a hunter who disregards safety rules and damages someone's property.
"This is the most serious penalty we can impose [under current law]," said Chairwoman Mary Kay Sigaty, a West Columbia Democrat. "This is a serious incident."
Fox said his amendments would codify hunting safety protocols that all hunters should know already.
The proposed changes would leave the safety zone at 150 yards and would remove Ulman's prohibition against hunting on lots smaller than 10 acres in the rural western parts of the county.
But Fox's amendments would have originally required hunters to either shoot downward from an elevated position or "be sure that the discharge is toward a safe backstop or background."
Fox and Paul Peditto, acting assistant secretary of the state's Department of Natural Resources, who also attended the work session, believe the latter rule alone would achieve the county's objective. The councilman later in the week said he dropped the portion about shooting downward.
But Councilwoman Jen Terrasa, a King's Contrivance Democrat, worried that "safe background" is too vague and that the restrictions on firing from an elevated spot and having a safe backstop should apply together, not just one or the other.
"I'm concerned we're just lucky so far," that no one has been injured, Terrasa said, suggesting the bill be tabled for more study.
The housing bill, which aims to provide more lower-cost housing more quickly, seemed closer to agreement.
