Baldwin County, Alabama News and Discussion
April 10th, 2009 — Other News, State News
Here’s your opportunity to get your very own Alabama Senate Roll Call Ringtone.
Yep. It’s yours. It’s free for the downloading for the state political junkies among us.
It’s from a roll call vote at the end of the 2008 session, so you nostalgia fans get to hear “Mr. McClain!” if you listen long enough.
Click through to listen and download.
April 8th, 2009 — Other News
Former Swift School Principal and teacher Ione Wilson Swift died Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, at a local health care facility. She was 100 years old.
Swift was a resident of Bon Secour for 70 years. As a member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church there she was a past president of the Women of the Church and also many other offices. She also served as treasurer for the South Baldwin Church of Women United.
Swift was principal and taught seventh grade at Swift School in Bon Secour for 30 years. She retired in 1971.
April 8th, 2009 — Other News
A wonderful video in which blind artist Ricky Trione demonstrates and explains his tactile style of drawing and painting.
April 3rd, 2009 — Other News
Mobile and Baldwin counties are among seven Alabama counties in line to benefit from some $5.8 million in federal money for flood map modernization, according to news releases from U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, and U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa.
The grant will come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and be routed through the state’s floodplain mapping program, based at the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, or ADECA, the releases state.
The amount represents a decrease from last year, when the state received $6.9 million, ADECA spokesman Jim Plott said Thursday. He did not know why the state is getting less this year or how the work will be broken out among the seven counties.
April 3rd, 2009 — Other News
The Fish River shoreline assessment rescheduled for Saturday has been postponed again due to rain and the threat of continued flooding on the river, Bethany Kraft, director of the Alabama Coastal Foundation, said.
Volunteers will meet May 2 at Bohemian Park on Baldwin County 48 in Fairhope. Kraft said the postponement will allow time for the river to stabilize and allow participants to have a better chance of observing the characteristics of the river that are included as part of the study.
The assessment is intended to study the condition of the river shoreline, including erosion, sediment deposition and the number of invasive plant species, along the waterway from Ala. 104 to south of Baldwin County 32, according to Kraft
April 1st, 2009 — Other News
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has declared a state of emergency for 11 Alabama counties because of the severe weather that hit those areas over the weekend.
By declaring the state of emergency, the governor authorizes the Alabama Emergency Management Agency to assist communities, assess
damage and seek state and federal assistance.
The affected counties include Baldwin, Clarke, Covington, Coffee, Crenshaw, Dale, Elmore, Geneva, Houston, Henry and Washington. Alabama EMA officials including director Brock Long will visit EMA officials Tuesday in Covington, Geneva and Houston counties.
Additional rain is expected in Alabama Tuesday and Wednesday
March 30th, 2009 — Other News, Robertsdale
A damage survey team from the National Weather Service in Mobile has completed an initial damage assessment of the storms that oved through the Robertsdale and Elsanor communities of central Baldwin County Friday morning.
The team found evidence of damaging winds that occurred along the leading edge of a severe bow echo that moved through the Robertsdale and Elsanor areas between 4:00 a.m. and 4:15 a.m. Friday morning.
The team found a path of straight line wind damage from 200 to 400 yards wide and was near two miles long. the worst damage along the path occurred near the County Road 85 area just north of US Highway 90 where six single family homes of varying construction techniques experienced significant structural damage to roofs, and walls.
March 28th, 2009 — Other News
Unemployment in Alabama kept climbing in February, rising to 8.4 percent from 7.8 percent in January as construction and manufacturing jobs again melted away.
The state rate was more than double the 4.1 percent rate posted in February 2008. Alabama’s unemployment rate, in percentage point terms, has gone up faster in the last year than all but six other states.
The local picture also continued to deteriorate, with joblessness in Mobile County rising to 8.5 percent from 7.8 percent in January. Unemployment in Baldwin County, though seventh-lowest in the state, rose to 7.6 percent in February from 6.9 percent in January
March 28th, 2009 — Other News
Arsonists were busy over the weekend, setting six separate fires in the Perdido area, according to rangers with the Baldwin County Forestry Department
Forest Ranger Ross Presley said three of the fires occurred Friday, burning a total of 150 acres.
“The big fire burned 110 acres, the other two burned 20 acres each,” he said.
March 27th, 2009 — Other News
Between the bridges on Ala. 104 and Baldwin County 32, Fish River flows south unseen by most residents as it moves toward Weeks Bay.
Volunteers in canoes and kayaks will paddle that 8-mile stretch Saturday in the first of what is planned as a series of studies of waterways in Baldwin and Mobile counties, said Bethany Kraft, executive director of the Alabama Coastal Foundation. Participants will note erosion, water conditions, sedimentation, invasive plant species and other conditions along the river, she said.
“This is a pilot program for something we hope to be able to do on all the waterways of Mobile and Baldwin counties,” Kraft said. “We want to get a clear picture of what’s going on all up and down the river
March 23rd, 2009 — Other News
A staff member from the office of U.S. Representative Jo Bonner will be making stops in Baldwin County on Thursday.
The purpose of these visits is to meet with any constituents who may be experiencing difficulties with the federal government and who are seeking the congressman’s assistance in resolving these problems
March 23rd, 2009 — Other News
For the second time in three days, arson fires have broken out in the woods around Perdido in Baldwin County, accodring to the Alabama Forestry Commission.
Forester Ross Presley said two fires occurred Sunday afternoon, burning a total of abot 80 acres. One of the fires, near mile marker 46 of Interstate 65, advanced to the highway but did not force its closure, as was the case Friday.
The second fire Sunday was in a woodland at Dyas abd Hoyle Bryars Road, about four miles west of Perdido and two-thirds of a mile east of I-65
March 19th, 2009 — Other News
The Alabama Department of Transportation has reopened the Interstate 10 Welcome Center in Baldwin County after tests found nothing harmful in a restroom soap dispenser.
March 19th, 2009 — Other News
Baldwin and Mobile counties were among the 10 fastest-growing counties in Alabama last year, according to data that will be released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
It’s the third year in a row that both of Alabama’s coastal counties made the Top 10 list.
Baldwin County placed No. 3 on the list, growing by 2,691 people to a total population of 174,439
March 16th, 2009 — Other News
A motorcyclist from Brewton reported missing since Friday night was found dead along U.S. 31 north of Bay Minette on Sunday afternoon following an accident, Baldwin County authorities said.
County Coroner Jim Small said the body of Bobby Marshall Freeman was found off the highway near Perdido.
Freeman, 19, apparently was traveling north on a 2005 Yamaha sport bike when he left the roadway and struck a concrete utility pole standing well off the roadway, according to a State Troopers report. Speed appears to have been a factor, the report states.
