By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

An Alabaster state senator said he was pleased with a redistricting plan passed by both houses of the state Legislature June 2, which would keep all of Chilton County in the 6th Congressional District.

The state Senate and House of Representatives approved the plan June 2, and the document is now awaiting signature by Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and approval by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The plan passed the Legislature about one week after the Senate approved an alternate plan, which would have moved Chilton County into the 3rd Congressional District, a plan state Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, said would harm the 6th District, which contains Shelby County and much of the Birmingham metropolitan area.

However, the House rejected the Senate’s original plan, and instead submitted an alternate plan, which kept Chilton County in the 6th District and was recommended by the Legislature’s Reapportionment Committee a few weeks ago.

After the House voted to return to the committee’s original plan, the issue returned to the Senate. The Senate then voted to approve the House’s plan, which also added all of Coosa County to the 6th District.

The Senate’s plan then went back to the House, which approved the plan on June 2.

“I’m very happy that we were able to keep all of Chilton County in the 6th District,” said Ward, a member of the Legislature’s Reapportionment Committee. “We basically ended up going back to the same plan the committee recommended in the first place.

“I think this is a much better plan than the one the Senate originally passed,” Ward added.