Entries Tagged 'Gulf Shores' ↓

Clean up of Alabama beaches is back in full force after a ten day layoff for the holidays. But, is it all for nothing as oil buried in the surf zone continues to impact local beaches.

Cleaning It Up – Surf and Sand

Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft says he’s concerned that people who received oil spill claims payments may not be prepared when the taxman comes calling in April. Nearly all of that money is taxable, but the claims operation did not withhold taxes, as most employers do, leaving the recipient with the responsibility to set aside enough money for state and federal tax bills.

Oil spill claims checks may put some in a tax pinch

The tip of the Fort Morgan peninsula is awash in tarballs.

Gulf oil spill tarballs cover Fort Morgan

BP Crews Return To Cleanup Monday

• An out-of-state investor paid $536,000 for seven completed or partially finished bank-owned cottages on Baldwin County 6 in Gulf Shores, according to Herndon Luce of Vallas Realty. The purchase included four lots and 13 boat slips on Bon Secour River. Shirley Poulos of Carney Realty represented the buyer.
• The Episcopal Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast paid $375,000 for the 7,500-square-foot, bank-owned building it was leasing for its Holy Spirit Thrift Shop, on 3.5 acres at 6798 Gulf Shores Parkway in Gulf Shores
• CoffeeHeads, a gourmet coffee shop, and Mission 25 Hair Salon will open Feb. 1 in Pelican Place on Ala. 59 in Gulf Shores

Also (in Mobile), Ciggy’s 4 Less?

Real Estate News

Two Baldwin County beach communities have turned down federal awards because they required local governments to put up city money or add costs for new city programs.

City officials in Gulf Shores scuttled plans last month for a new fire station and a community storm shelter despite securing a $2.8 million pledge from the federal government.

And Orange Beach officials decided last week to give the state $750,000 in federal money the city received to buy waterfront property.

The two communities have aggressively pursued the grants in recent years, winning money used to buy sea oats, senior citizen shuttles – even an island.

2 Baldwin County cities turn down federal money

Tourism is the backbone of South Baldwin County’s economy and Labor Day visitors did their part to help break the recession.

The final figures won’t be in for a couple more weeks but all indications are the Labor Day weekend saved the summer for many struggling businesses on Pleasure Island.

Labor Day Beach Economy

Flushing the bad economy away

When Meyer Real Estate opens its Gulf Shores and Orange Beach offices this morning, the firm will check in more vacationers arriving for the holiday weekend than it has on any other day this summer, said Sarah Kuzma, a company spokeswoman.

In July, traditionally the local tourism trade’s most lucrative month, Orange Beach collected more sales and lodgings taxes than it has in any month in the city’s 25-year history. The $1.4 million in lodgings tax collected was a 5.2 percent increase over July 2008 and the $1.01 million in sales tax taken in was up 13.5 percent from last July, the Convention and Visitors Bureau reported Thursday.

Also in July, the 14,317 condo units from Perdido Key to Fort Morgan reported an occupancy rate of 79.5 percent, a 3.2 percent increase over the same month last year and the highest rate since at least 2004, Convention and Visitors Bureau statistics show. That, Malone said, is “staggering” considering there are 713 new condo units that weren’t on the market last July.

Beach reports tourism records

A nonprofit that earlier this summer struck a deal to build and operate a 6,700-square-foot art education center on city property in Gulf Shores has backed out of that deal and instead proposed putting its facility in the next city over.

Beach CITE Studios Inc. struck a 99-year, $1-a-year lease agreement with the Gulf Shores City Council in February. Its leadership said in June that it expected to open its art center at the corner of West 19th Avenue and West Second Street early next year but that deal fell apart.

As the nonprofit sought approval for its building designs this summer, Gulf Shores officials sought to develop the public space with green building techniques, but Beach CITE Studios representatives said adding things like landscaped stormwater retention basins and a permeable parking lot would price the project out of their b

Nonprofit eyes Orange Beach for arts facility

Anticipation continues to build among the racing community as the area’s premier triathlon – and its new sister event of a shortened triathlon – grows closer each day. Registration recently opened for the Brett-Robinson Alabama Coastal Triathlon and the new Coastal “Tri-It-On” Triathlon, both of which are set for Saturday, September 19, 2009 in the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach area.

Pleasure Island Prepares to Welcome Expanded Triathlon Weekend

On pace for an end-of-year $700,000 deficit and facing a certain decline in income with the end of the tourism season, Mayor Robert Craft on Monday called for city department heads to look for ways to cut spending and delay expensive projects.

When outlining their 2009 spending plan late last year, city officials projected that revenues would fall from 2008 collections by about $2.6 million to $23.5 million. Even with those lowered expectations and decreased spending — including layoffs — revenue of $23.5 million would put Gulf Shores in a $700,000 deficit.

Councilman Jason Dyken, who chairs the council’s Finance Committee, said “we’re within one-tenth of 1 percent in terms of our projections,” which means Gulf Shores is on target for the forecast deficit. Said Dyken: “We have a problem to overcome.”

Facing shortfall, Gulf Shores mayor urges thrift

If leaders were more thrifty during good economic times, the bad times wouldn’t be so bad.

Cities around Baldwin County have a new look — on the Web, that is.

Foley, Fairhope and Gulf Shores have focused on improving the aesthetics and organization of their cities’ Web sites over the summer months to improve usability and clarity of information.

WEB SITES

GULF SHORES: www.cityofgulfshores.org

FOLEY: www.cityoffoley.org

FAIRHOPE: www.cofairhope.com

Cities give Web sites a facelift

City Hall has filled one of two new executive posi tions the City Council created earlier this summer, hiring Cynthia King last week as director of finance and administration.

King is currently the municipal finance director in College Park, which hosts the Georgia International Convention Center and a portion of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

City Administrator Steve Gar man said that King, who is scheduled to start work in Gulf Shores on Sept. 14, will earn $80,000 annually

Gulf Shores hires finance director

The nationally recognized Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail offers visitors glimpses of local wildlife in their natural habitats and now includes a form of new-age treasure hunting — geocaching.

Geocaching draws more attention to state park

In 2004, Hurricane Ivan wiped out the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, forcing the evacuation of every animal and bird in the facility. Zoo keepers and volunteers moved the animals out, one by one, and transported them to individual safe houses further inland. The entire hurricane evacuation was a nightmare. But things will be different now if a storm threatens Pleasure Island.

“If we have a hurricane, all we have to do is lock them down in the Category 5 night-houses and spend the night at the zoo,” says zoo director Patti Hall.

Local Zoo Hurricane Ready

Mayor Robert Craft said Monday that the city is scrapping plans to build an estimated $4.5 million fire station and a multimillion dollar community storm shelter near Jack Edwards Airport.

Instead, the mayor said, City Hall is negotiating with Baldwin EMC to buy its shuttered building a few blocks north of City Hall on West First Street in hopes of turning it into a new primary fire station.

Plans for firehouse near Gulf Shores airport scuttled