St. Clair County commissioners Tommy Bowers and Ken Crowe took a trip to Washington, D.C. for the 2017 National Association of Counties (NACo) Legislative Conference this week.

The annual conference brought together over 2,000 county officials to meet with federal officials and to attend forums, discussions and meetings on federal policy issues that directly impact their respective counties.

While there, Bowers and Crowe met with Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers on Monday.

“(The conference) has been going great, Congressman Rogers) was gracious enough to give us about 30 minutes of his time,” Crowe said. “We updated him on what was going on in our district.”

The discussion also focused on potential funding for St. Clair County, specifically when it comes to infrastructure.

“The main thing we talked about was infrastructure, infrastructure funding and what type funding might be there for that,” Bowers said. “They’re not far enough along yet to know, until (President Trump’s) budgets are determined and we know what’s available. The main thing is that we’re maintaining connections, so that as things develop, we’ve got a rapport already built; they know us and we know them. It makes it easier if we need to talk to them.”

The commissioners then met briefly on Tuesday with U.S. Sens. Richard Shelby and Luther Strange.

“They both spent a few minutes with us,” said Crowe, referring to the president’s first address that evening to a Joint Session of Congress, and what was also considered his first unofficial State of the Union address. “They were gracious enough to come down, talk with us a little while, give us a quick update on what they had been doing and what they had coming up to vote on. (They) were looking forward to (the address) too.”

Shelby and Strange had a similar reaction to Rogers’ in regards to funding, infrastructure and otherwise, according to Bowers. “They just don’t know yet.”

Crowe returned from the conference Wednesday, while Bowers is returning this morning.

“It’s always an honor to come and get to meet these guys face to face and talk with them,” Crowe said. “I think it’s good for our county and for them to recognize people from our county—and they do. They’re a good group of delegates that we have.”