H.B. 12 Outdoor Recreation Accessibility Amendments: transcript

Thank you. Uh, glad to be here today. Uh, I'll be quick. This bill is essentially a refile from last year that this committee passed out favorably. Um, for those in the audience who aren't aware, this would allow, um, our state parks to have, uh, access through the UCOR grant for the construction of trail facilities and improvements, uh, equipment for mobility and adaptive users. This allows, uh, all utahns or more utahns to have access to the beauty of Utah. And, uh, and it's not just the adaptive user, but it's the, quite often it's the, the parent or other family members that don't get to go out, uh, because they're, they're staying back with their, their family member who's unable to access our parks. And so this is a, a pretty simple bill and, uh, no cost to it, and it will help our families out.

Um, just, just one clarification representative. So right now, this, what you're doing is just giving them access to that grant. It's not that they couldn't do it right now, but they don't have access to that nuclear grant, is that correct?

Correct, yes. When we worked with state parks, they felt that we needed this language in order to be able to use it for these

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would make a motion that we pass out house bill, uh, 12 with favorable recommendation.

Mr. Chairman, since there is no opposition, I was wondering if this sponsor would like to put on consent.

I would be Open to that. Yep.

I would make that motion. And we put it on consent.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Madam Meeting Clerk House Bill 12, outdoor recreation accessibility amendments by Representative Welton.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Uh, this is a bill that we passed, uh, unanimously out of this body last session, and it went through Senate Committee House committees, and we just ran out of time. Um, what this bill does is we live in one of the, the most beautiful places in the world. Uh, be Utah Full is a great moniker. Uh, but the sad reality is, is many of our families are not able to access our state parks fully because they have disabilities. And what this bill does, and, and, and this was kind of eye-opening to me, it's not just the student, sorry, I say students, I'm just coming out of, uh, classroom mode. I was in classroom the other day. Uh, many of our young folks, or our families have family members who are, uh, disabled. They're unable to move around, uh, and, and access the beauty of our state. And, uh, but they're able to do this with some, some, um, relatively simple adaptive use mobility devices, but they're hard to access. And, uh, what happens a lot is we have families that will go to a, a beautiful place and, uh, mom or dad stays back with the disabled, uh, uh, child. Either they don't go or they sit in the car where everybody else goes out on a hike and they're not able to participate. So what this does is it allows, it actually expands the, um, the language in the Corp grant where, uh, state parks can, um, re request grants and for part of their grants, they can actually include, uh, adaptive use services, trails and, and equipment. And so that's all it does. It's gonna open it up to, uh, families. It's gonna strengthen our families so they can all enjoy the beautiful, uh, state of Utah.

I'll waive. Thank you. Summation has been waived.

Madam Reading Clerk

Thank you. Thank you Mr. President. This, uh, simple bill that, uh, makes a a, a great adjustment though. Um, this came from the Natural Resources Agriculture Environment Interim Committee recommended the bill. And what we have is a, a fund that is, uh, are we are able to use within state parks and other, uh, for building trails or infrastructure. Uh, it's called the infrastructure grant. And what this bill will do is just add language that construction of a trail facility, improvement of a trail or facility, uh, or acquisition of equipment that improves access for disabled or adaptive users. And that that's what it is. Just making it, that that fund could be used for that purpose as well as the other purposes. But that I'd be open to questions. Thank you. And again, there this, the,

Okay then. President, I had moved that house. Bill 12 passed.

Senator Vickers. Baldy Aye. Lein Aye. Bramer. Aye. Bus Cullimore. Aye. As Camilla Aye. Fillmore Aye. Grover Harper Kins Aye. Ipson Aye. Johnson Wan McKay Mikel Milner Milner Musman Owens Aye. Pitcher Lum Rebi Sandal Stevenson Stratton Aye. Vickers Weer Aye. Wilson. Aye. Winterton President Adams