Tag: Gulf Shores

Rauf Bolden: Is the new school in Orange Beach leading to another split?

It may seem obvious to those who look. Orange Beach is perfectly positioned to have an independent school system, divorced from the constraints of the Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBE). In a stroke of negotiated genius, Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon closed a deal with BCBE, ensuring they take on millions of dollars worth of construction debt, providing a new High School/Middle School for students in Orange Beach with no increase in local-property taxes. The city did transfer land to BCBE, giving them clear title to the property the school will sit on. This new campus is the final catalyst for a school split in Orange Beach. As with all politicians, there is a hidden cost to partnering with the City of Orange Beach. The Baldwin County Board of Education is expected to make administrative concession, accommodating Mayor Kennon’s vision. He will be disappointed, leading to a split of irreconcilable differences. Kennon said, “I expect to be treated differently, I expect them [Baldwin County Board of Education] to listen to our community [me]. The school [Middle School/High School] that we’re building is a gem for them to show off,” according to a report by John Mullen on the OBA Website. BCBE is not going to let Orange Beach tell them how to do their job, providing the excuse for Orange Beach to file for separation, severing ties with Baldwin County, and forming an independent school system. Orange Beach tried twice before to found a school system. Once in 2007 and once in 2014, but both failed massively. This time the initiative will succeed. Mayor Kennon will have more influence over the school board in an independent school system, finally getting what council has always wanted for Orange Beach, tattooing their guidance on the lives of future generations through a finely tuned curriculum of academics, sports and after-school programs. This will take the worry off the shoulders of working parents, because their kids will be in supervised care from sunup to sundown. Prayer and The Pledge in standalone after-school programs are elements local parents will not oppose; having independent after-school programs is the only way this works. “Organized prayer in the public school setting, whether in the classroom or at a school-sponsored event, is unconstitutional. The only type of prayer that is constitutionally permissible is private, voluntary student prayer that does not interfere with the school’s educational mission,” according to adl.org. By example Gulf Shores City Schools will show how effective independent-minded programs can be, allowing Orange Beach parents to see how they can improve alternative education. Administrative differences will be pointed out, underlining the idea for independence. Perhaps more home-schooled children will come back, because of Orange Beach’s after-school model. Orange Beach must first demonstrate the short comings of the Baldwin County Schools, pointing again to how well an independent school system like Gulf Shores targets the unique needs of local children in a way generic, county-wide education never can, like marine biology, oceanography, or religious studies. Political interests will start to align, pointing out the discrepancies, and shortcomings of the county system. A groundswell of concern will rise, pleading for help, leading to discussions, therapy and divorce. “I would hope Gulf Shores would go ahead and help us [Orange Beach] move forward so both city and county schools can move forward,” said Mayor Tony Kennon. “We [BCBE] need to hire administrators, coaches, and … it’s frustrating and unfair to the parents who are in limbo.” according to a report in al.com (https://www.al.com/news/2018/12/orange-beach-families-to-state-where-are-we-going-to-school-next-year.html). The Baldwin County Board of Education and the Gulf Shores City School Board could not find common ground, negotiating the school separation, requiring the Alabama State Superintendent of Education to step in, settling the dispute. “Gulf Shores High School students living outside of the city going into grades 11 and 12 will remain at the school. Next year’s 10th graders will have the choice to stay at Gulf Shores High School or to attend class in Orange Beach,” said Dr. Eric Mackey, Alabama’s State Superintendent of Education. The possibility exists that students attending Gulf Shores City Schools from Orange Beach and Ono Island will be required to pay tuition, “Gulf Shores City Schools shall retain the right to formulate an Out of District Policy at their discretion,” said Mackey, according to a report in mynbc15.com. This Out of District Policy ruling is leverage for Gulf Shores City Schools. Precedent already exists for student applications, vetting, and tuition payments in Satsuma, an independent school system, according to a report on Satsuma City Schools web site. Kennon will be very disappointed if Orange Beach is saddled with a large tuition bill for its students, but you cannot expect Gulf Shores’ taxpayers to foot the bill for Orange Beach’s students. The Orange Beach City Council could volunteer to subsidize tuition, providing financial assistance to local parents, during the transition period. The Orange Beach separation whispers have already begun, based on the premise that we can do it better. “I am not comparing Orange Beach schools to the county,” Kennon said. “I’m comparing Orange Beach schools to the best in the state. If we can’t be the best in the state, then we have underachieved. We have the ability, the financial wherewithal to be the best in the state. No one can hold us back. We have to as a community expect excellence, hold our kids to it and hold other parents to it. If we don’t demand excellence, if we don’t demand that we are the best in the state then we’re not going to get it.” Obviously Mayor Kennon wants to put his stamp on the way things are done. This will be impossible with the reins of power in the hands of the Baldwin County Board of Education. Sooner rather than later Kennon will announce Orange Beach is going their own way. Orange Beach can afford to go it alone. In 2017 the city generated $41.8 million in revenue, having $25.1 million in expenses, leaving $16.7

Better late than never: ALDOT to hold public hearing on Bridge to Nowhere

In what may be a turning point for a highly controversial bridge project, the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) has announced the first project-specific public hearing on a proposed bridge to the beach in Baldwin County. The bridge at hand is the proposed connector from SR-180 to Foley Beach Express Bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. It will run between Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, Ala. ALDOT is inviting anyone in the Southwest Region (Mobile area) interested in the new bridge to the public hearing on Thursday, Nov. 15 at the Gulf Shores Activity Center. There, they will get a chance to ask questions, make comments, and may review project information and exhibits on display. The bridge debate One one hand is those who are pro-bridge. This group includes several local mayors like Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon, Transportation Director at ALDOT John Cooper, as well as the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach Tourism board. According to their website, the tourism board operates “With 34 full-time and 11 part-time employees, the CVB has a $10.46 million budget, which is funded by a 2 percent lodging tax.” The board came under fire last year for starting what some residents called a misleading petition campaign over the bridge. In a Change.org petition to garner support for the new bridge. At the time of publishing, it had garnered the signatures of 5,508 supporters. Opponents of the bridge pointed out that the language included in the petition was at best misleading if not an outright lie. They explain their side saying: Going to the beach has become an all day affair and that’s just the drive time. We can do something about it if we stand together.  By signing this petition we can tell the elected officials along the Gulf Coast that we need better ingress and egress to Pleasure Island on the Gulf Coast. A new bridge, with no tolls, will allow more traffic to come across the island and it will reduce traffic flow on our major highways. In a lawsuit against the state testimony confirmed that no studies have ever been conducted to determine the need or impact of an additional bridge. Local residents question any assertion that states that it will “reduce traffic flow” noting that it will put more traffic on Canal Road which is already an area of significant congestion. Meanwhile, those against the beach bridge have amassed in a Facebook group called “End the #Bridge2Nowhere.” They believe $87 million state-funded bridge project is a misguided attempt by ALDOT and specifically John Cooper to curry favor with local politicians while solving no problems and potentially causing more harm to locals through both increased traffic congestion, noise pollution and damage to local property owners through the states use of eminent domain to seize houses and land.  ALDOT’s lack of transparency about this project has come under fire from many including local residents, State Auditor Jim Zeigler, Alabama Today’s own Apryl Marie Fogel, and most recently State Senate candidate Jason Fisher. Details and official notice below. If you are not able to make it residents can also send comments by November 30, 2018 to: Email: swinfo@dot.state.al.us Fax: (251) 473-3624 Mail: Vincent E. Calametti, P.E. Region Engineer, Southwest Region ATTN: Edwin L. Perry III, P.E. Alabama Department of Transportation 1701 I-65 West Service Road N Mobile, Alabama 36618 View the invitation Southwest Region residents received to the public hearing below:

True story of waking up to find ALDOT is secretly planning to build a fly-over bridge in your backyard

Baldwin County, Alabama is home to the picturesque cities of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, among other charmingly quaint cities and towns. This uniquely beautiful part of the state annually draw tens of thousands of tourists and homeowners from around the nation to their beaches of crystal white sands. Local residents enjoy the southern charm of Alabama beaches, and food and entertainment amenities that feed a thriving tourist destination. For Mike Powell and his wife Lisa their move to Gulf Shores from Georgia should have allowed them the peaceful and quiet lifestyle they desired with the ability to stay active and enjoy their close knit community, but these days their lives are anything but quiet. When the couple first moved to Gulf Shores the sound from their front porch was near silence. For just over the last year, they would sit outside and enjoy the sounds of nature. Now, all they hear is the annoyingly distinct sound of traffic from the neighboring Foley Beach Expressway. Why the drastic change? Behind their house is a nearly 200 acre piece of undeveloped property with trees and land that previously served as a natural barrier for sound. Land that has now begun to be cleared with parts removed for what some locals are calling the #BridgeToNoWhere — a second fly-over bridge just shy of a mile and a half from the current Foley Beach Express Toll-Road. The existing and now proposed bridge would be built over the small canal leading from Gulf Shores to the beaches. At the time the bridge was first proposed in 2015-2016, the Powell‘s portion of neighborhood didn’t even exist. When state officials tabled the plan, it became a moot point to those in the area, something that would have been of no concern to future homebuyers like the Powell’s and the potential buyers of the next 100 houses that are currently waiting to be built. Alas in the dark of night or so it seems the plan was not only been resurrected, it has been brought back to life and fast-tracked with the new residents and potential residents about to be blindsided. Which is exactly what happened on Dec. 04, 2017. Powell was driving on the Foley Beach Express Way when he spotted the white Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) truck coming from a new clearing in the undeveloped property described above. He pulled into the area and stopped the driver to ask what was going on. “We’re building a bridge,” the workers told him. When he mentioned that there’s another bridge down the road, they said “no, no, no. It’s going to be a new bridge.” Imagine Powell‘s surprise as he was told they were making way for that new bridge, practically in his backyard. More accurately, the bridge will be approximately 1/2 mile from his driveway and 1/4 from his neighbors. “We were going to have a City Council meeting about the schools that afternoon in front of the mayor and the staff, and I went and rushed and got these pictures developed and brought them before the board,” Powell said referring to a handful of photos he had from that day on his cell phone. “That’s when we were told by the mayor and the staff that they were planning a bridge.” It was the first time it was publicly talked about since 2016. There was no notice from the state or city officials. No hearings for public input, the work had already begun. A few weeks later Mike and Lisa met with Mark Ackerman, Public Works Director for the City of Gulf Shores, to get a better idea what the city was planning to build. “He personally took us in his vehicle and showed us where this [new bridge] was going to go down Foley Beach Expressway and come up back around County Road 4. But at that time he was saying there was just going to be this little bridge going up over our property about eight-nine feet high, because there were some wetlands there,” explained Powell. That made sense to the Powell‘s, so they left it alone, but they continued to hear more and more noises. Worried about the increasing sound levels, Powell reached out to ALDOT and in early January drove up to Mobile to meet with regional staffers Edwin Perry the regions Pre-Construction Engineer and Vincent Beebe the Assistant Region Pre-Construction Engineer, who are heading up the project. The pair took Powell to a conference room showing him map based design of the proposed bridge, looking down at them Powell noticed a significant problem – his neighborhood wasn’t even on the map. The property images the state had been using were from 2015. They hadn’t been updated when the project was revived towards the end of 2017. “When we got there to the Mobile office they had a table with the plans all out. Not a model, but a map, like a Google map,” explained Powell. “And I go, ‘where are our houses?’ Our part of the subdivision wasn’t there yet. So I asked them, ‘have you been to our subdivision?’ They responded, ‘no.’” Those working on the project in Mobile had failed to realize nearly 250 houses had been built in the area beside where they were planning to put their bridge. At that time no one overseeing the project had even been out to visit the site; it’s unclear if that has changed. “So I asked them how big this was going to be and what sort of volume of traffic they expected, and they couldn’t even answer that question,” Lisa weighed-in. “‘We’re not really sure’,” they told her. Since that time, Powell and his wife have had endless questions about the project set to destroy the peaceful life they once enjoyed. The problem? Answers have been hard to come by and when they can get them, they keep changing. First, they were told the bridge would be an evacuation route (this has since changed and the purpose has been designated as a way to ease Highway 59 traffic congestion). During

Gulf Shores school board offers Huntsville superintendent Matt Akin a new job

The Gulf Shores school board extended an invitation to Huntsville school superintendent Matt Akin to become the first Gulf Shores City Schools superintendent. Gulf Shores city officials said the board of education voted unanimously on Monday to give legal counsel the go-ahead for negotiating a contract with Akin to lead their school system. The offer does not come as a surprise, Akin was the only person out of 27 candidates who was publicly interviewed for the job. Kevin Corcoran, President of the Gulf Shores board of education said they were so pleased with Akin’s interview that they were suspending their search to try and reach an agreement with Akin. “We like his passion. He has high achievement and he is highly approachable. That’s kind of a rare combination,” Corcoran told WHNT. According to WHNT Akin released a statement Monday night saying; “It is an honor to be selected and I look forward to reviewing the terms of the contract. It is an incredibly unique opportunity to be able to work with the board to develop a new school system from the ground up. Everyone I’ve spoken to has been very supportive.” “At the same time, I truly care about everyone in Huntsville, and I came to the district because I believe in the potential of the schools and the city. The foundation is in place to support greatness. With the help of the teachers, administrators and the community, I believe that Huntsville City Schools can be a model school system for the country. All of us on the Huntsville City Schools team have worked to develop strategies for personalized instruction, new resources to support literacy and math, and drafting our Indicators of Future Success.” The school split talks began in January but hit several snags including who the superintendent for the school would be. The school board is still negotiating an actual start date for the school; with city and board of education members hoping for a 2018-2019 date.

Orange Beach City Council bans short-term residential rentals

Orange Beach City Council members have voted to pass an ordinance that will ban short-term rentals in residential areas of the city. The council met Tuesday evening to discuss and vote on the ordinance. According to WPMI, city leaders made their decision in front of a packed house. In attendance were a number of realtors and homeowners who were interested in the ordinance. Under the new ordinance, residents are still able to rent out a room or home on sites such as Airbnb or VRBO​ (Vacation Rentals By Owner​)​​, but​ only if it’s for 14 or more days at a time. The new ordinance does not affect condo owners or any properties outside of a residential zone. Orange Beach now begins the process of creating a new “Vacation Rental” license which will allow homeowners to rent their own properties for 14 days or longer. Homeowners who already have the current short-term rental license will be grandfathered in but will be required to purchase a new license when their current one expires. Each license will cost around 500 dollars each year. Officials say they’re passing this ordinance as a safety measure and as a response to complaints from residents of the city; citing criminal activity, noise complaints, trash, and overflow parking. Some residents believe that the city is just looking for more sales tax revenue from condo rentals, and that this ordinance will prohibit some economic growth for the city. In 2017, Gulf Shores residents, Orange Beach’s next door neighbors, made $4.9 million and brought 27,700 guests into the coastal town using Airbnb, a short-term vacation rental company. Orange Beach is not the only Alabama city to make such a ban. In September, Mountain Brook banned all rentals less than 30 days.

Gulf Shores rolls out new access mat, makes beach more accessible

The City of Gulf Shores officials want everyone to be able to enjoy the beach, no matter their mobility restrictions. On Thursday, the city of Gulf Shores announced on their Facebook the newest addition to their beach, a new Access Mat to the West End of Gulf Place Public Beach. You asked, we listened! The City of #GulfShores is excited to announce the addition of an Access Mat to the West End of Gulf Place Public Beach. This pedestrian pathway will make the beach more accessible for beach goers of all ability, elderly people, wheelchair users and parents with strollers. The mat will give beach access to people of all ability, including: elderly people, those with wheelchairs, power scooters, and families with strollers. The access mat was made by a company in New Jersey, it’s five feet wide, made of plastic, and held into the ground with 12 inch stakes. The 350-foot mat has already been used by hundreds of beach goers who said that using it made it much easier to get to the beach. This is the first time a mat like this has ever been available on the Baldwin County beaches, and with the positive reactions thy’ve received, Gulf Shores plans to add more mats along the shoreline in the near future.

Baldwin County and Gulf Shores at odds over school split

In January, Baldwin County’s first-ever school split talks began. Gulf Shores is currently trying to split from the rest of the Baldwin County School System to form it’s own Gulf Shores city school system. During the first meetings in January, tension was high as the two groups discussed a new superintendent for the Gulf Shores school. According to a report by AL.com, Baldwin County school system Superintendent Eddie Tyler, said “There will be no negotiations right now on our part without a superintendent in place.” However, the main issue Baldwin County Schools has with Gulf Shores are the city schools continued demands for the school split to be completed by fall of 2018. Baldwin County Schools believes this will put more strain on the system than necessary, and think that fall 2019 is a more realistic start date. Although both groups disagreed on some issues, by the end of the first meeting Kevin Corcoran, Gulf Shores school board president, said he was thrilled with the outcome of the meeting. Gulf Shores City Schools has since hired Suzanne Freeman as an interim superintendent. She will serve the school system for 180 days, while they search for a permanent superintendent. The only issue left was where to send the nearly 600 children who attend Gulf Shores schools right now, who will need to be relocated when the city school is settled. Everything was looking like a go for Gulf Shores City Schools, until Wednesday. On Wednesday, Baldwin County school officials announced they will no longer negotiate with Gulf Shores, and have asked the state superintendent to intervene. Tyler asked Interim State Superintendent Ed Richardson to resolve the issue of a start date for the schools. Tyler told AL.com, “Gulf Shores has refused to respect our sincere concerns regarding the serious consequences of a rushed split this summer, leaving only a matter of months to prepare… They knew these facilities would be complete and ready for students in August 2019, to know this from the beginning and still demand a 2018 start date is disrespectful at best.” “There has been a lot of ‘talk’ about their vision and their hopes, but they have yet to offer anything of any substance on how they will do this, including the simple question I have asked in every meeting — how are you going to get this started in just a matter of months?” said Tyler. As of late Wednesday, no decision has been made regarding the two school systems.

Gulf Shores to provide $1 million grant for local zoo

The long awaited relocation of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to a $1 million grant from the Gulf Shores City Council. Gulf Shores City Councilman and chairman of the zoo foundation board, Steve Jones, said the board has been exploring relocating the zoo for years, the $1 million grant will be used to secure financing for a 25-acre site just North of the Intercostal Waterway in Gulf Shores. “We’re excited because as difficult as it’s been, we’re finally going to realize this mission and this dream of actually getting this project started and finished once and for all,” Jones told Lagniappe. “Call it a two-year process but now we’re down to the final 30 days, hopefully getting fully funded and beginning the project and get the project built from start to finish and open it in less than two years.” The rest of the financing is being made possible by a $26.3 million bond issue. These funds will be used for a refinance on the existing zoo debt, construct the new zoo facility, and buy 71-acres of land next to the new zoo site. “The bonds are actually going to be sold on the open market,” said Jones. “They have a lot of stipulations, regulations and hoops for us to jump through with regard to what they expect us to do and it’s pretty onerous. There is a private investment company that finds projects like this and decides they are worth investing in. One investment group is purchasing this entire package. All of the revenues that the new project is going to generate are all pledged to the repayment of these bonds.” Gulf Shores is quickly becoming one of the most economically charged cities in the state. According to AL.com, 25.8 million people visited the gulf coast and spent $13.3 billion last year. The new zoo location will be a great addition to the already growing gulf coast attractions. The $1 million grant will be presented to the zoo from Gulf Shores when construction is complete in 2020.

Alabamians reap benefits of Airbnb

By sharing their homes with beach goers, tourists, and college football fans, Alabamians made over $16 million in 2017 using the popular home-sharing app Airbnb. Airbnb allows short-term accommodation seekers to book rentals online with individual hosts or property owners. According to their yearly totals, compiled from 114,000 guest arrivals in Alabama: The typical Alabama host shared their home 24 nights over the course of the year earning an extra $6,100 in income About 2,100 Alabama families hosted at least one Airbnb guest 57 percent of hosts in state are women Gulf Shores was the most visited Alabama destination, with hosts bringing in 27,700 guests and earning $4.9 million. Birmingham was the runner-up with 14,400 guest arrivals bringing in an extra $1.5 million. Tuscaloosa and Auburn were also popular destinations. Hosts in these cities earned over $1.1 million over the past two football seasons. Airbnb hosts in Alabama did more than make profits in 2017. In September while Hurricane Irma swept through Florida, many Florida residents traveled to Alabama for safe lodgings and to wait out the storm. Airbnb responded quickly and activated their emergency response program in several Alabama cities. The special listings for evacuees, in addition to having no list price, were free from Airnb’s fees and local/state taxes. One host in the Mobile area refunded her guests over $600 for their stay during the hurricane as a chance to “pay it forward.” “Home sharing through Airbnb continues to be a unique and flexible way for Alabama families to make more money, pay their bills, and support their communities,” said Public Policy Director for Airbnb in Alabama, Will Burns. “We look forward to 2018 being another successful year of giving residents in Birmingham, the Gulf Shores, Auburn, and all corners of the state an economic boost, travelers more affordable accommodations, and neighborhood businesses more foot traffic.”

Steve Flowers: BP oil spill money, a missed opportunity for Alabama’s natural resources

We have unbelievable natural resources in Alabama starting with the Tennessee Valley and transcending to the beautiful white sands at Gulf Shores. Many of our natural resources have been exploited over the years. The prime example would be the exploitation of our rich vaults of iron ore discovered in Jefferson County in the early 20th Century. It created the city of Birmingham, the Steel City of the South. U.S. Steel swept in and bought the entire region and used cheap labor in the mines and steel mills and kept poor whites and blacks in poverty wages and shantytowns. They owed their soul to the company store. Finally, they organized into labor unions. The United Steel Workers Union Local in Birmingham became the largest in the nation. Alabama also became the most unionized state in the south. The TVA workers and Reynolds Aluminum workers in the Tennessee Valley were all unionized. The tire workers in Gadsden, Opelika, and Tuscaloosa were unionized. The federal workers around Ft. Rucker in the Wiregrass were union. The largest employer in Mobile was the docks. The dockworkers were unionized. When you combine these locales with the steelworkers in Birmingham, we were a pretty unionized state. In the course of our recent history, we have been more prudent with our natural resources. The prime example of that would be during the late 1970s when we sold the oil rights in Mobile Bay to Exxon Mobil. We got a fair price, and we put the entire corpus aside and preserved the money into a trust called the Heritage Trust Fund. Governor Fob James deserves credit for this accomplishment. It is the crowning achievement of his two terms as governor. It is quite a legacy. Not all governors leave a legacy. Ole Fob has one. Not as much can be said for our most recent governors. Don Siegelman, Bob Riley, and Robert Bentley cannot point to any accomplishment that will distinguish their time as governor. Jim Folsom Jr., who only served two years as governor, can lay claim to having lured and landed Mercedes, which has been the crucible that has catapulted us into the second leading automaker in the nation. Governor Bentley was given a golden opportunity to garner a place in history with the one-time BP oil spill money. Granted, it was not as much money as the Exxon Mobil oil rights nor did we get as good a settlement as could have been garnered. We will only see $693 million of the $1 billion settlement because we bailed out and sold out to get our money up front. Compared to Louisiana and Florida, it was not a good settlement. Essentially this one-time windfall will be squandered. The BP money was appropriated in a special session last September. The Legislature spent the entire BP oil settlement proceeds with a compromise bill that divided the money between state debt repayments, roads for Baldwin and Mobile counties and Medicaid. The allocation was $400 million for paying off state debts, $120 million for highway projects in Baldwin and Mobile counties, and a total of $120 million to Medicaid over the next two years. There had been a contentious battle over the funds for Baldwin and Mobile going back to last year’s regular session. Lawmakers from the coastal counties fought diligently for the road money because their counties received the brunt of the 2010 oil spill. Lawmakers from North Alabama felt that the BP settlement should compensate all Alabamians equally. Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur), who chairs the Education Budget Committee in the Senate, led the fight for North Alabama and Sen. Trip Pittman (R-Baldwin), who chairs the Senate General Fund Committee, spearheaded the battle for Baldwin/Mobile. Senators compromised the final day of the special session. The money from BP is spent. The only thing to show for it will be some highway to the beach. They ought to at least name it the BP Expressway. It would be the only legacy from the windfall. See you next week. ___ Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist.  His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers.  He served 16 years in the state legislature.  Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.

$15M facelift to begin on Gulf Shores beaches

Gulf Shores’ public beachfront is getting a makeover. Phase one of a $15 million revitalization project will begin Nov. 7, with a completion date in late March or April. WALA-TV  reports crews began removing palm trees, sidewalks and other items from the beach Tuesday to make way for contractors to begin work on the Gulf Place Beach Revitalization project. Gulf Shores spokesman Grant Brown says the project will include improved parking, a public safety building and a revitalized beachfront boardwalk for better pedestrian access to the beach. The project is part of the city’s Vision 2025 plan which was adopted in 2014 for the Gulf Beach District. The goal is to create a safe and accessible destination for families while enhancing the overall beach going experience. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.

Robert Bentley scandal making national headlines amid new revelations

Gov. Robert Bentley has already dominated news in Alabama, where during the spring details of his alleged affair with former adviser and staffer Rebekah Mason and the ongoing impeachment proceedings surrounding it seemed to dominate the news cycle. But now the governor’s press problem has gotten worse still, as GQ writer Jason Zengerle published a scathing article on the matter, bringing national attention to Bentley’s peccadilloes. The story begins with the story of how former First Lady Dianne Bentley surreptitiously recorded her husband at their beach house in Gulf Shores, capturing illicit and somewhat awkward chatter between Bentley and his extramarital partner Mason, and it doesn’t ease up from there. Reads one knife-twisting passage: At first, the governor made idle chitchat, but the conversation soon grew intimate, slipping as it did into the cringe-patois of a randy senior citizen. “I love you,” he told the person on the other end. “When I stand behind you and I put my arms around you, and I put my hands on your breasts, and I put my hands on you and pull you in real close, hey, I love that, too.” Robert went on in this vein for nearly 30 minutes. All the while, Dianne’s iPhone quietly recorded—filling itself with lusty incriminations that eventually would tornado through Alabama and spiral into the craziest political scandal in the country. “Rebekah, I just, I miss you,” he said wistfully at one point. “I worry about loving you so much.” The article, while it focuses on salacious revelations like the above, also puts Bentley in his Alabamian context. “Every governor exists in a perpetually reinforcing bubble of self-regard. But in Alabama, delusions of grandeur can inflate to Mobutu-like proportions,” Zengerle writes. The article also regales readers with the tale of Mason’s ascension within the Bentley administration. After nearly three years on the periphery of the governor’s inner circle, Mason made her move for greater influence in late 2013. According to a person close to her at that time, she thought the governor was being ill-served by his other advisers. Bentley’s approval numbers were high, but Mason, who had recently begun working for his re-election campaign, believed that he’d squandered his first term and that he needed to be more aggressive. Before long, she was functioning as Bentley’s top adviser. “He didn’t have a voice,” one friend of Mason’s told me, “until she helped him find it.”  And then, as we all are familiar with by now, things took another turn. … Bentley—an awkward man with a heart-rending comb-over who’d married young and come late to his lofty position—was unaccustomed to female attention. And foolishly susceptible to it. When his advisers would caution him about pushing for things the legislature wouldn’t support, like a teacher pay raise, Mason would counter in a syrupy voice, “But you’re the governor. People love you.” Of course, it’s impossible to know when Bentley and Mason’s relationship became more than just professional. (Neither Bentley nor Mason responded to GQ’s interview requests. Bentley has apologized for making “inappropriate remarks” to Mason, and both have denied having a “physical affair.”) But their closeness had become noticeable and, to those around the governor, increasingly troubling. Beyond a vivid recounting of the Bentley affair, so to speak, the article also contains new revelations that are of note to Alabama pol watchers. For instance, this hot take from a former Bentley loyalist: “When she became his top political adviser, it was like the Hindenburg came down and fell on the Titanic as the Titanic hit the iceberg. I was watching a woman who didn’t know how a bill becomes a law running the state of Alabama.” To boot, the story revealed new details about Bentley’s fondness for the iPhone’s red rose emoji, financial difficulties in Mason’s family life that more or less led to her appointment with the Bentley administration in the first place, and drama over Bentley’s wife and children, who nearly boycotted the governor’s second inauguration and, cruelly, ended up seated just behind Mason’s family. Read the full piece here.