The end of the year brings an end to state Rep Barbara Massey Reece's 14 years of service in the Georgia General Assembly. 

Friday's Rome News highlights the career of  the Menlo Democrat who  lost her bid for re-election in November. The  article says the knowledge that Reese won’t be on the House floor in January hasn’t kept her from answering calls and emails from constituents.

Paul Smith, a former state House representative who was already a veteran lawmaker in 1998 when Reece was sworn in, said she’s always been known for her dedication.

Reece  was a retired educator when she decided to run for the seat that represents Chattooga and part of Floyd counties. During her first year in office she instituted her signature annual Women’s Day at the Capitol visits. She said she thought women from the district should get a chance to learn about their government, so I arranged for tours at different agencies. She told the Rome newspaper, she supposes the idea came from just being a school teacher. Field trips.”

Since then, more than 1,100 local women have participated in the daylong trips and heard from leaders of agencies as diverse as the Georgia Supreme Court, Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Georgia Department of Transportation. She says not one dime of taxpayer money was spent. It was all sponsored.

She also started arranging trips for military veterans, to get the men involved, but most couldn’t take a whole weekday for themselves. The outing turned into an annual veterans reunion in the Gore community, with help from area leaders and high school students.

Other ways she boosted her district include getting a new veterans service office in Summerville, pushing to keep Floyd and Chattooga out of metro Atlanta’s air quality non-attainment zone and working to convince Tour de Georgia officials to route the race through Rome, Sloppy Floyd Park and Lookout Mountain.

Down in Atlanta, Reece gravitated naturally to the House Education Committee and focused much of her energy on protecting public schools and their employees.

She vetted Gov. Roy Barnes’ 2000 education reform package closely, and said she backed it only after the state Senate committee chaired by Rome’s Richard Marable made changes “that straightened out her concerns.”

Reece also threw herself into her duties on the House State Institutions and Property Committee, becoming an advocate for public safety and mental health as she learned more about prison and hospital facilities.

State Rep. Katie Demp­sey, who was elected to the Floyd County delegation six years ago, said Reece is an example of unselfish public service.

When the state announced plans to shutter Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital, its mental health facility in Rome, Reece fought the move until the 2011 closing. Since then she’s been traipsing from agency to agency with piles of documents, trying to convince officials there’s still a use for the vacant complex.

A favorite idea, she said, is a National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Academy that offers a second chance to young high school dropouts. It’s a program she’s long supported, and she said she intends to remain an advocate even now.

In the article Reece is quoted as saying she has much to do at home and she loves to work in the garden, but she intends to keep up with that's going on in the legislature and what needs to go on, especially in education.