Steve Reynolds, former lawmaker, DOT chairman, dies at 87

<p>Steve Reynolds, a former state senator and Transportation Board chair whose name is on a major Gwinnett County road, died Monday after a long battle with lung cancer.</p><p>Reynolds, 87, was admitted into a hospice Thursday night from his Lawrenceville home after his condition began deteriorating rapidly, said his son, Dr. David Reynolds of Birmingham, Ala.</p><p>The Commerce native and World War II veteran held a variety of local posts on the Commerce school board and City Council before moving to Lawrenceville in the early 1960s.</p><p>Beginning in 1968, he served 14 years in the Senate, staking out territory where he would concentrate his legislative career: transportation. He served 12 years as chairman of the Transportation Committee.</p><p>After leaving the Senate, Reynolds served for two decades on the state Transportation Board, many of them as chairman. The board allocated more than $1 billion each year for road construction in Georgia.</p><p>Former DOT Commissioner Wayne Shackleford credits Reynolds with being instrumental in ensuring in the 1970s that the motor fuel tax was dedicated to building and repairing roads and bridges.</p><p>In 1991, Gwinnett County commissioners named one of the county's busiest traffic arteries after him _ Steve Reynolds Boulevard at Exit 39-A on I-85.</p><p>Reynolds left the board in 2004.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2de9e84)</p>