AUGUSTA — Lawmakers whose proposals were turned down by leaders for consideration in the upcoming second session of the 124th Legislature tried one more time Thursday to lobby for their bills’ inclusion.

House and Senate leaders met to consider 70 bills that they had previously turned down, ranging from encouraging youth hunting to clarifying dog-barking laws. The 10-member, bipartisan Legislative Council said it wanted to restrict the workload in 2010 to the state’s most pressing issues.

Reps. Mike Carey and Peggy Rotundo, both Lewiston Democrats, successfully made the case for the emergency nature of their bill requests.

Carey’s bill seeks to clarify that roller-skiers are treated the same as bicyclists under the law.

“It’s an activity that high school and older serious Nordic athletes do quite a bit in the summertime,” he said to the council. “The practice of all coaches and all athletes is that because a roller-skier is very to similar in speed to a bicycle, that you would operate under the bicycle rules of the road.”

An accident that occurred in northern Maine this summer, which resulted in the death of a 20-year-old from Wyoming who was training at the Maine Winter Sports Center, brought the issue to Carey’s attention.

“I want to make sure that it is clear, and that’s the emergency nature of the bill,” Carey said.

Vehicles must give bicyclists and pedestrians a 3-foot berth when passing them, according to Maine’s current laws.

Rotundo’s legislation seeks to allow minor capital improvement projects in schools to be permitted costs under the Essential Programs and Services funding formula.

“I have been contacted by multiple school superintendents who are very concerned about how they will cover immediate and ongoing costs within the current budget discussions,” wrote Rotundo, who was unable to attend the meeting. “I and they consider the need of all our local schools immediate and therefore that consideration of this (proposal) should not be put off.”

Other proposals among the 32 approved include bills to strengthen laws concerning noise from dogs and motorcycles.

A proposal from Rep. David Van Wie, D-New Gloucester, to ban texting or keyboarding while driving was denied. Lawmakers considered similar legislation last year and decided to pass the Distracted Driver law, which creates a violation for driving while distracted but does not specify specific devices or behaviors.

A bill proposal by Rep. Doug Thomas, R-Ripley, to prohibit mandatory vaccinations, was also turned down. Despite the large group of citizens who gathered in support of it, legislative leaders said vaccinations are already voluntary, except in instances of bio-terrorism.

The full Legislature returns Jan. 6 for what is scheduled to be a four-month session.

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