<BillNo> <Sponsor> SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 427 By Massey SJR0427 007148 - 1 - A RESOLUTION to honor the Tennessee Department of Transportation on winning the 2024 Southeast Roadeo. WHEREAS, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) team has won the 2024 Southeast Roadeo, thus claiming its tenth championship out of the seventeen Roadeos held since 2006; and WHEREAS, the Southeast Roadeo features leading equipment operators from eleven states, who compete against each other on a course designed to test their skills in operating the following equipment: backhoe, single axle dump truck, tandem axle dump truck, skid steer, lowboy, tractor mower, and motor grader; and WHEREAS, focusing on efficiency and skill, the Southeast Roadeo provides operators with the opportunity to display their mastery of vehicles, trailers, and heavy equipment; evaluate their strengths and challenges; improve their techniques; and learn new skills, while engaging in friendly competition; and WHEREAS, the Roadeo also helps build relationships and trust among operators; these relationships are invaluable when operators from across the State come together to work as a team during emergency conditions and disaster-related situations; and WHEREAS, the TDOT team won the State's tenth Southeast Roadeo by taking first and second place in the skid steer category and first and second place in the single axle dump truck competition; and WHEREAS, the members of TDOT's 2024 Southeast Roadeo championship team are Benjamin Bolden and Josh Human representing Region 1; David Bragg, Dewayne Everett, Ricky Moss, and Ronnie Spivey representing Region 2; Evan Mitchell, Joel Bates, Mike Puckett, - 2 - 007148 John Young, and Richard Sullins representing Region 3; and Clint Bowman, Hunter Butler, and Logan Garner representing Region 4; and WHEREAS, their victory reaffirms our high opinion of TDOT and its dedicated employees, who are most deserving of our approbation; now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE HOU SE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, that we honor and congratulate the Tennessee Department of Transportation team on winning the 2024 Southeast Roadeo, applaud its members' ongoing commitment to making Tennessee's roads and highways the best in the nation, and extend to them our best wishes for much continued success and happiness. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that an appropriate copy of this resolution be prepared for presentation with this final clause omitted from such copy and upon proper request made to the appropriate clerk, the language appearing immediately following the State seal appear without House or Senate designation.