Gulf Shores town hall meetings begin Thursday

The first Gulf Shores town hall meeting of the year will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Gulf Shores Adult Activity Center. The purpose is to give citizens and government a forum in which to interact.

Steve Garman, the newly hired Gulf Shores city administrator, will share his background and describe the duties of the city administrator. A representative of the city will discuss the 2009 budget and the effect it will have on projects and personnel.

Following a question-and- answer period, representatives will be available for residents to express concerns about their areas of the city. All Gulf Shores residents are asked to attend to help increase dialogue between elected officials and their constituents.

For more information, call Tom Moore at 251-948-7864.

Publix deal being negotiated - al.com

Publix deal being negotiated - al.com: "Pact would modify existing agreement between taxpayers and mall owners
Friday, January 09, 2009
By RYAN DEZEMBER, Staff Reporter

GULF SHORES — City officials are in the final stages of negotiating a revenue sharing deal that would bring a Publix grocery store and about 22,000 square feet of additional retail space to the Colonial Pinnacle at Craft Farms development sometime in 2010.

Designs for the 45,000-square-foot grocery store and adjacent shopping center at the northeast corner of
Ala. 59 and Baldwin County 4 were approved by the City Council in October. Construction won't begin, however, until after the city and developers have reached a financial agreement."

Gulf Shores mayor home after hospital tests

Robert Craft awaiting results from UAB
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
By GUY BUSBY
Staff Reporter

Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft is home resting following hospital tests in Birmingham over the weekend, city officials said Monday.

Craft went to the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center for checks after suffering several incidents of dizziness, said Steve Garman, city administrator.

Garman said the mayor decided to have to elective surgery while activity at City Hall was at a low level. The surgery allowed doctors to take tissue samples to check a possible growth in Craft's head, according to officials.

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Gulf Shores to eliminate 29 jobs in 2009

GULF SHORES — This week, 21 full-time and eight part-time municipal workers learned they will lose their jobs amid a restructuring at City Hall aimed at trimming expenses for an expectedly lean 2009.

They'll work through the end of the month and as severance will be paid all their accrued vacation and sick time and collect their normal salaries through the end of January, said City Administrator Steve Garman.

"The mayor and council did that in an attempt to give everyone some breathing room in order to find new employment after the first of the year," Garman said.

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23 Orange Beach city workers to be laid-off

Friday, November 21, 2008
By RYAN DEZEMBER, Staff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH — This morning, 23 municipal employees will lose their jobs and many others in the weeks to come will see their pay slashed as city officials scramble to make up a $3 million budget shortfall.

Specifics of the firings won't be released until after Mayor Tony Kennon tells affected employees, but they amount to a little more than 8 percent of the city's current 275-person workforce. Overall, Orange Beach is cutting more than 13 percent of its jobs via the layoffs and the elimination of 15 positions that have been vacant since summer.

Over the last decade Orange Beach has thrived as one of the wealthiest cities in Alabama. City officials spent feverishly to add park land, build roads, provide amenities and generally get ready for a forecast population boom.

But sky-rocketing property insurance rates and tightening credit markets conspired to slow the area's booming real estate market and the onrush never came. Developers of more than 4,200 high-end condo units and hotel rooms that were approved in recent years never applied for building permits and construction of at least 3,400 more have been permitted but not started, city records show.

"We're cleaning up the mess from someone else's party," said Kennon, who took office earlier this month. "It's not a fun thing to do, but I've committed to run this city like a business and that's what we're going to do."

Kennon's counterpart in neighboring Gulf Shores, Mayor Robert Craft, said his city will also probably have to part with some of its nearly 300 employees. Gulf Shores isn't facing the immediate shortfall that Orange Beach is, but Craft said that city financial planners are anticipating that tax revenue will be about $3 million, or 10 percent, less than it was in 2008.

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