Rep. Corey Harbison, R-Good Hope, left; and Rep. Randall Shedd, R-Fairview.

State lawmakers met to ensure this year’s legislative session will resume amid ongoing precautions over the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, emerging from Tuesday’s brief gathering at the State House with a new target date to return — they hope — to at least make sure Alabama’s government will be able to cover this year’s essential business.

House Rep. Randall Shedd (R-Fairview) said Tuesday a quorum of lawmakers approved a measure to pick up the legislative session on April 28, leaving a small window of time to approve budgets and pass local bills before the session ends on May 18.

“By law, we had to meet today and agree on a date, because otherwise, constitutionally, the session would have ended today,” said Shedd. “We’re adjourning until April 28 in the hope that things are better with the coronavirus at that point. At that time, we would try to do things that are important to the state’s economy; to adopt the budgets and local bills.”

Among measures of local interest are two bills that would officially hand over former school properties at Garden City and Battleground to their communities. Rep. Corey Harbison (R-Good Hope) said the local legislative delegation is ready to act, once the legislature is back in session.

“Garden City could still come up, and I’m planning to introduce that if we come back into session,” he said. “It’s one of my top priorities so that the school building can be turned over and get the structural attention that it needs. I’ve already advertised the bill, it and it’s ready to go.

“We also — all of us — are working on a bill for Battleground as well, and that would also be lined up and ready to go, if the current legislative schedule doesn’t change further because of the coronavirus.”

Shedd said he also is backing a similar local bill that would hand over a school property at Joppa to a local historical board. In addition, local legislators have been collaborating to advance a proposal that would change the makeup of the Cullman County Commission from its current three-member setup to a five-member body. That proposal would reconfigure the commission, drawing four part-time associate commissioners from four new districts, and chaired by a full-time commission chairman.

That bill would likely take more time to enact, especially now that the legislature is faced with an abbreviated 2020 calendar. “It would have to be advertised locally, and we’d want to give everyone a chance to see it and make comments on it,” explained Shedd. “While everyone is social distancing and with the legislature adjourned, our delegation has been going back and forth by email on the details. But I think all of our local legislators are supportive of it.”