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,egislative Briefs httpe //wwwojoumalnow . com/news/local/local/genassembly/legbrfs3C .htm <br /> All railroad companies in North Carolina can <br /> condemn land, but the process takes longer for them <br /> than it does for such state agencies as the N . C . <br /> Department of Transportation . <br /> Committee members plan to continue discussing the <br /> bill today . <br /> Committee approves boat bill <br /> Boat owners who abandon their vessels in the <br /> Neuse River could have the crafts seized and end up <br /> in court under a bill approved by a Senate <br /> committee yesterday . <br /> The bill, which now goes to the full Senate for <br /> consideration, would establish a pilot program on <br /> the Neuse River and its tributaries to remove <br /> abandoned boats . If passed, the bill would allow <br /> state environmental regulators to begin the process <br /> of removing boats if they have been observed <br /> abandoned for more than 90 days . <br /> The state would then give boat owners 45 days to <br /> remove them . If the owners took no action, state <br /> regulators would remove them and could take the <br /> owners to court to recover the cost . <br /> The push for the legislation came after several <br /> barges were abandoned in the Trent River at New <br /> Bern . State and local officials went through several <br /> legal obstacles before finally being able to remove <br /> them . <br /> House revises flood - plain bill <br /> The state would have to wait 18 months before it <br /> could penalize cities and counties that do not have <br /> flood-plain ordinances under a revised bill approved <br /> yesterday by a House committee . <br /> The bill originally would have denied disaster relief <br /> funds for future floods to local governments that did <br /> not restrict businesses like junkyards and <br /> chemical - storage facilities in flood plains . <br /> But the bill was changed so that governments <br /> without such ordinances would only be placed at the <br /> end of the line for clean-water grants . <br /> On Thursday, the House Environment Committee <br /> diluted the bill even more , agreeing that cities and <br /> counties without flood ordinances would have until <br /> January 2002 to get the rules in place before they <br /> could be penalized through the grant program . The <br /> bill had required flooding rules by next January . <br /> of 3 A11W'? 000 7 12 PM <br />