Friday, June 30, 2006

gulf shores: Guest Columnist of the Month: Mark Lent

By Mark Lent
June 2006

I have a real affinity for the beach. I make the four-hour drive to Gulf Shores, Alabama pretty regularly, and one of my favorite things to do is to simply sit down in the sand and close my eyes. It awakens my senses—I can hear the waves pound the beach, the seagulls chirping and the faint laughter of children playing off in the distance. I can smell the pungent, salty air wafting through my nose and feel the gentle southern breeze meeting my face. It's an extraordinary experience for me. My wife learned early in our relationship that I was meant to live on the beach. She is more of a mountain person, yet embraced my dream of owning a home on the beach, so a few years ago, we purchased my little slice of heaven, a condominium in Gulf Shores. My wife Kristi is an amazing woman, and I thank God for her daily.

When I'm at the beach, my whole disposition changes, and I think that this is reflected in my photography. I love shooting costal scenes and look forward to time on the gulf to go out in the early morning or late afternoon and find interesting "things" to shoot. I never set out with an agenda, or specific place—I just wander. Sometimes, I'm lucky, sometimes not. But like the old saying goes, a bad day of shooting on the beach is better than a good day anywhere else. One of the items that struck me most about the beach is that there's life everywhere, and I find all of it amazing.

I became keenly aware of shooting on the beach after Hurricane Ivan made a direct hit on Gulf Shores. 175 mph winds—so strong that a six-inch chunk of wood embedded four inches into the vinyl siding of my home there. Even more remarkable is that a 50 pound sheet of wire-reinforced glass flew over two other buildings and hit one of my bedroom windows—a full 150 yards from where it was originally located. To say that the force of a Hurricane is brutal is an understatement. 50-foot dunes that followed the costal water disappeared in a matter of hours. Large boats were found 5–10 miles from their moorings and cars were blown a full mile from where they were last parked, and all were "sandblasted" to a shiny metal base.

I was able to get into Gulf Shores 10 days after the storm passed. As a photojournalist, I had a real desire to document what I was seeing and shot hundreds of images in and around my property. I was nervous about straying too far from my home simply because the National Guard was patrolling the streets with loaded M-16's with patrol helicopters flying 200 feet above the ground, and I didn't have press credentials. I can only imagine an active war zone looking similar to the total destruction that was all around me. Dune's drifted up to 20 feet on the roadways and large earth-movers were scooping up truckload after truckload of sand. The carpet in my unit was ruined and mildew started setting in to the walls almost immediately, so for the next five months—without water and power, I went down weekly and camped out in my unit, fixing all of the problems and laying 1000 square feet of tile.

When I was able to get out and move up and down the cost line, I noticed that there were areas that I was able to explore and photograph that were unavailable to me earlier. Some of the cost line revealed itself and has in some instances gone from plain to spectacular. Reclaiming the land has given the area an opportunity to redesign, so to speak, and allow the natural life that thrives in the area to be given greater accommodations. The up side of this is that, between the varied wildlife refuges and the work being done on the costal areas, I see many more photographers than I did a few short years ago. Currently, there are over 80 marked habitat areas for costal birds in the Baldwin County and Mobile County areas, allowing photographers to make images ranging from bald eagles to the common finch. Additionally, Baldwin County and Mobile County have six different wildlife preserves.

Bon Secour National Wildlife Reserve in Gulf Shores is also a hidden gold mine for image making. Either walking on the miles of paths and seeing deer, alligators and plant habitat or signing up to work as an assistant during sea turtle hatchings (something that I would like to eventually do), the diversity of this reserve is difficult to match anywhere else. And of course, there's nothing wrong with simply sitting on the beach for a sunrise either. Lighting, either very early in the morning or in the late afternoon "golden hour" can be breathtaking, so if you're in the neighborhood anyway, make an extra effort with your images and chances are you won't be disappointed.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

gulf shores: Beach cities seek health care system designs

Monday, June 26, 2006
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter
ORANGE BEACH -- In February, Pensacola's Sacred Heart Health System took the first step toward building a planned outpatient surgery center in southernmost Baldwin County by filing a "letter of intent" with the state board that permits health care facilities.

To aid the request's arduous trek through Alabama's "certificate of need" process, Sacred Heart executives asked the city councils of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores to endorse their proposal, municipal officials said. About the same time, other regional health care providers were being alerted to Sacred Heart's designs and, according to city officials, some expressed their desire to also enter the lucrative market on Baldwin County's beaches.

"There are a lot of people wanting to go with the local person (Sacred Heart) and some people wanting to go with someone else and we just thought it was best to open it up," said Orange Beach Councilwoman Joni Blalock.

To that end, leaders in both cities agreed to jointly issue a request for proposals -- much as a city would if it were looking for an architect or a consulting firm -- from companies interested in building health care systems on Baldwin County's beaches.

At present Orange Beach and Gulf Shores are served by a few doctors' offices, but the nearest hospitals are South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Foley and four institutions, including Sacred Heart, in Pensacola.

"What we're hoping is someone will come in and do an overview of what the existing health care facilities are in the two cities, tell us what their plans would be for the next three years, the next five years, the next eight," Blalock said. "The ultimate thing that we want is a local hospital and that's what we're working toward."

The Orange Beach City Council passed a resolution last week entering into the two-city agreement and Gulf Shores council members said they expect to do the same at their meeting this evening. From there, the cities will solicit proposals from health care providers throughout the Southeast, narrowing the plans down to three or four. Interviews with the chosen companies will then be conducted before picking one to formally endorse before the state Health Planning and Development Agency's Certificate of Need Review Board, city officials said.

"We're trying to have a say," Orange Beach City Administrator Jeff Moon said. "We realize that to some extent it's beyond our control, but before we jump in and start cheerleading or lobbying for someone we wanted to see who maybe has the most to offer our residents."

The cities had formed a group looking into ways to bolster health care options in the growing resort cities, Moon said, but each will likely have to assemble its own panel consisting of elected officials and local health care experts to review the proposals.

Blalock, who is spearheading the effort for Orange Beach, said that besides being advertised locally, five metro areas will be targeted. Birmingham, Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., Mobile and Pensacola will all see advertisements soliciting the proposals in local publications, she said.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

gulf shores: Woman killed in Gulf Shores collision

Thursday, June 22, 2006
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter


GULF SHORES -- Dorothy Berger, 50, was killed Wednesday morning when the Jeep Cherokee she was driving collided with a dump truck on Alabama 59, authorities said.

Berger, a Gulf Shores resident, was pronounced dead at the scene, Baldwin County Coroner Huey Mack Sr. said.

The dump truck's driver, 43-year-old Grand Bay resident John Hebert, was taken to South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Foley for treatment, according to Gulf Shores police.

According to Mack and police, Berger was traveling north on Alabama 59 at 11 a.m. when she turned left toward Baldwin County 6. It was then that her car and the dump truck, which was southbound on 59, collided, authorities said.

"The question is who had the light and who didn't; who had the right of way," Mack said. "That's a question (police) will have to sort out."

Though the intersection is equipped with left-turn signals, the arrows are not always a part of the lights' rotation. Motorists wanting to make a left from Alabama 59 onto Baldwin County 6, which is also known as Oak Road West, are instructed by signs to yield on green.

Berger, according to Baldwin County Probate Court records, owned a home in the Martyn Woods at Bon Secour subdivision, which is off Baldwin County 6 and about 2½ miles west of the crash site.

Monday, June 19, 2006

gulf shores: Gulf Shores volleyball camp is a hit

Friday, June 16, 2006
By DEREK BELT
Sports Reporter

GULF SHORES -- Volleyball may be a fun sport, but according to Gulf Shores coach Wing Brett, it certainly isn't easy.

That's why Brett and the rest of the Dolphins' coaching staff hosted a series of free volleyball camps this week in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. The first two camps were held Monday and Tuesday at the Bodenhamer Center in Gulf Shores, while the second two were held Wednesday and Thursday at the Orange Beach Recreation Center.

Brett said Tuesday the camps were designed to expose local youths to the game of volleyball and teach them the basic skills they'll need in order to become successful players in the future.

He said every participant had positive attitudes and appeared to be having a good time while running through the many drills that emphasized passing, setting, spiking and the like.

"I think they all had a lot of fun," said Brett. "They're learning the sport at their own skill level because we're modifying each drill to fit each person."

Each camp had about 20-plus participants, which Brett said allowed the coaches and counselors to offer each camper a little one-on-one instruction. He said most of the youngsters showed considerable improvement from the beginning of each session to the end, and from each day to the next.

"A lot of it's learning the form," said Brett. "Once you learn the correct form your skills will improve."

Next month, Brett will host the annual Gulf Shores High School Volleyball Camp for fifth- through eighth-grade girls. The camp will take place July 17-20 and run from 8:30-11:30 a.m. The cost is $60 per camper.

For more information, contact Brett by phone at 377-6285 or by e-mail at wbrett@bcbe.org.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

gulf shores: 23 charged in Internet child-sex sting on Alabama coast

Associated Press
GULF SHORES, Ala. - Police began rounding up 23 men in Alabama and three other states who have been charged in an undercover Internet probe targeting child-sex predators.

Gulf Shores Police Chief Arthur Bourne said a Baldwin County grand jury indicted each suspect on a single count of soliciting a child for sexual purposes by computer.

One was arrested at his job in Tuscaloosa Tuesday night while others arrested live in Baldwin, Mobile, Elmore, Chilton and Wilcox counties. Three others live in the Florida Panhandle, Louisiana and Georgia.

Under Alabama law, the charge is a Class B felony, which carries a possible sentence of two to 20 years.

The indictments allege the men used computers to set up sexual contacts with teens, ages 13 to 14. But Bourne said those teens turned out be undercover police officers in a sting operation.

"We would go into a chat room, like an Alabama chat room, and within four or five minutes they would send us an instant message and contact us," Gulf Shores police lead investigator Tommy Green said Wednesday.

About 150 people contacted the undercover officers in the last two months.

Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb said some of the suspects sent nude photos of themselves or other pornographic material to the person they thought was a teen.

The indictments stated that suspects attempted to solicit sex from people who they thought were "13-year-old Maggie," "14-year-old Jessica" and "14-year-old Mark."


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Information from: Press-Register, http://www.al.com/mobileregister

gulf shores: Investors buy land for hotel in Gulf Shores

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Local investors bought 2 acres on West Commerce Avenue off Alabama 59 in Gulf Shores for more than $1 million, and plan to build a four-story, 96-room Holiday Inn Express , according to Robbie Jaeger and Eric Nelson of Meyer Real Estate , who represented the buyers. The land was part of 10 acres owned by Leonard Kaiser of Kaiser Realty . He plans to build a new office there and develop the rest as a business district, according to Kaiser.

A Dauphin Island house that has its front pilings sitting in the Gulf of Mexico was purchased for $525,000 by Gadsden investors who plan to move the house back from the water about 50 feet, according to Daniel Prickett of Prudential Cooper & Co. Realtors , who represented the buyers. The 2,200-square-foot house in Audubon Place received minor damage during Hurricane Katrina , Prickett said. The buyers plan to renovate the house on the 300-foot lot and resell it, he said.

Local investors bought 39 acres on Wortel Road, one mile east of Baldwin County 95 in Elberta, for $497,500, according to John Flynn of Yance, Inge & Associates .


American Auto Paints bought 2 acres on the east side of the Beltline Highway just north of Moffett Road for $90,000 and plans to build a showroom/retail center; a warehouse and distribution center; and a training facility, according to Nancy Stone of White-Spunner & Associates .

Mobile Bar Pilots LLC purchased a quarter-acre lot at Jackson and St. Anthony streets in DeTonti Square for $75,000 and plans to build its headquarters there, according to Diane Horst of Dauphin Realty , who represented the sellers. David Dexter of Grubb & Ellis/Peebles & Cameron worked for the buyers.

Addicted to Dogs , a dog grooming salon, has leased 1,000 square feet in Baker West Shopping Center at 9120 Airport Blvd., and Inner Strength Martial Arts has leased 2,500 square feet at the center, according to David Stein of Stein Investments . Both businesses will open in June.

A business named i-Tans will open in June in 1,750 square feet in Palmetto Place at 960 S. Schillinger Road, according to Angela McArthur of Prudential Cooper & Co. Realtors commercial division. Langan Development Co. owns the center.

City officials are considering buying the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission building at Church Street and Washington Avenue, according to Mobile Mayor Sam Jones . The 11,500-square-foot building is for sale for $1.15 million, said John Peebles of Grubb & Ellis/Peebles & Cameron, who is working with the city and the property owner. The city would like to move some city departments from leased space in the AmSouth Bank building on Royal Street to the SARPC site, Jones said. The city also wants to move its last occupant, the city's main frame computer, out of City Hall North at 350 St. Joseph St., and put the building up for sale. The proposal will soon be presented to the City Council.

Sterling Resorts of Destin, Fla., has been hired to manage operations and on-site rentals at The Beach Club , a resort with 600 condominium and cottage units, a European spa, restaurants and retail on Fort Morgan, according to the Head Companies of Point Clear. Head and W. G. Yates & Sons Construction Co . will retain ownership of The Beach Club and continue with development there, according to David Head Jr .

Friday, June 09, 2006

gulf shores: Late-summer alligator season looking good for state hunters

Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Huntsville Times
Board may approve season at its final meeting Saturday

Alabama's Conservation Advisory Board will hold its final scheduled meeting of the year Saturday in Gulf Shores, a fitting place since just up the road a short jaunt is where the state's first alligator season will be held if a proposal to have one is approved.

Conservation Department officials formally presented the plan in February. It would entail a seven-day season in late summer with a draw-system for permits, a minimum length requirement on gators and a quota necessitating check-in of all gators killed by hunters.

Hunts would be in the Mobile Delta, which has more gators than anywhere in the state. Officials could expand the area to other locales, but right now their sights are set on starting small in the Delta.

If the advisory board approves the season, and indications are that it will, and all the ducks are in the rows with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, then we'll join Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Lousiana with seasons. Quite a good move, I believe, since the population here and the Southeast obviously can support the taking of a number of these critters.

Mississippi jumped into the gator fray last year with resounding results. Georgia's seasons have been quite successful. Even with limited numbers of permits available, each state had thousands of applications.

Why? Because it's pretty dadgum cool to try something new and then be able to tell your pals you either killed a gator and it's at the taxidermist, or you missed and a gator almost ate your flatbottom boat. I doubt many guys will be hitting the Delta in sleek bass boats at night.

- Other advisory board topics expected to be discussed include the proposed 2006-07 hunting regulations and the possibility of moving dove season up a week in the North Zone.

Hunters for years have asked for some kind of shift from the traditional Sept. 15 opener to about Sept. 8 (or thereabouts). Birds are here then, they're gone then, they were here years ago, and on and on. Discussion was held at the March meeting and a vote could be taken Saturday.

The bottom line on doves is they're migratory, just like waterfowl. It doesn't matter what you plant or how much wheat you spread out for them. They're fickle critters dependent on the weather.

gulf shores: Opp man charged as child predator

By Special to the Star-News
Friday, June 9, 2006 8:19 PM CDT



The Opp Police arrested a resident of the Country Estates Trailer Court in Opp on the charges of soliciting a child for sexual purposes by computer and transmission of obscene material to a child by computer on Tuesday afternoon as the result of a multi-agency investigation.

Winston Leroy Henley, 35, was taken into custody Tuesday at the request of the Gulf Shores Police Department for outstanding secret grand jury warrants.

The Gulf Shores Police Department in cooperation with the Baldwin County District Attorney?s Office and the Mobile F. B. I. concluded the two month internet child predator investigation, code named ?Operation Child Safe,? in which undercover police officers posed as 13-and 14-year-old children on the Internet.

As the result of the operation, 23 individuals have been indicted by a Baldwin County Grand Jury for soliciting a child for sexual purposes by computer and/or for the transmission of obscene material to a child by computer.

At least 12 of the individuals indicted came to the city of Gulf Shores to meet with the person they believed to be a 13-and 14-year-old child and who were contacted by the suspects for the purpose of committing sexual acts with what they believed to be children. Upon their arrival, they were greeted by the undercover officers.

Arrests were also made in Summerdale, Tallassee, Foley, Tuscaloosa, Eight Mile, Camden, Gulf Shores, Robertsdale, Fairhope, Mobile, Birmingham, Jemison and Dothan as well as McDonough, Ga., Thibodaux, La., and Pensacola, Fla.



Cpl. Green thanked the Opp Police Department investigators Nicky Carnley, Junior Anderson and Mark Kyser, along with officers Phillip Joyner and Jeramy Jones for their assistance in making the Henley arrest.

Henley was taken to the Covington County Jail where he remains on hold for the Baldwin County authorities.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

gulf shores: Orange Beach, Gulf Shores appoint school boards

Tuesday, May 23, 2006
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter
On Monday morning, the Orange Beach City Council appointed a former teacher, an orthopedic surgeon, a one-time elementary school principal, a retired health care executive and the city's administrator as the first members of its recently created board of education.

Later Monday, in Gulf Shores, that city's council named a lawyer who works as a consultant for the Alabama Department of Education, a retired chief financial officer and three Parent-Teacher-Student Organization members: a chiropractor, a financial consultant and a real estate agent as the first members of its new school board.

The five-member bodies, which were authorized in February, will work to break the cities' campuses away from the Baldwin County Public Schools System, and later manage what local leaders hope will be the most well-funded schools in Alabama. The county school system has opposed the break.

The new school board members, who won't be paid, are appointed to staggered terms. The boards will work together because, while the cities have their own elementary schools, they share a middle and high school.

Elected leaders of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach together have studied the feasibility of breaking away from the county system for the past three years.

In Orange Beach, the council voted unanimously in a special morning meeting to appoint:

Jeff Moon, the city administrator since 2001, to a one-year term.

Missy Tyler -- who's taught in Trussville and Birmingham and volunteered at schools in Warsaw, Poland; Wellington, New Zealand; San Francisco and Orange Beach -- to a two-year term.

Rick Blevins, who's worked as a teacher, athletic coach and principal in the Selma area and now works as a surveyor in Pensacola, to a three-year term.

Dean Mason, an orthopedic surgeon, to a four-year term.

gulf shores: Gulf Shores comes up short

Monday, May 22, 2006
By DEREK BELT
Sports Reporter
MONTGOMERY -- Gulf Shores softball players, coaches and supporters are feeling those familiar mixed emotions today -- pride over another awesome season, but disappointment over another near miss.

A sixth straight trip to the state tournament yielded similar results for the Lady Dolphins' softball team, as Gulf Shores fell just short of the Class 4A state title after dropping two gut-wrenching games to St. James in the championship round Saturday.

The victories awarded St. James its second straight state title, while the setbacks handed Gulf Shores its second runner-up finish in three years.

Though the Lady Dolphins have made it to state six years in a row, this was truly the first time they'd come to Lagoon Park as the odds-on favorites to bring home the Alabama High School Athletic Association's blue state championship trophy. That fact certainly made the Lady Dolphins' second-place finish and resulting red trophy even harder to accept in the delicate moments following the last loss.

Despite the heartache and the disappointment, the Lady Dolphins still held their heads high. They consoled each other and hugged their fans, they thanked seniors Kristen Lambert and Whitney Harris for everything they'd given to the program the last few years and they set the forward-looking goal of returning to Lagoon Park next year for a chance at a little unfinished business.

And while they may not have won the state title this year, the Lady Dolphins' remarkable season -- in which they went 56-12-1 and reached No. 1 in the state rankings -- will undoubtedly go down in the annals of Gulf Shores High School history. It was a stellar season and an experience no Lady Dolphin will ever forget.

"It's nothing to hang their heads about," Gulf Shores coach Karen Collins said of the second-place finish. "These kids have set some personal bests and some school bests this year. It's an awesome ball club."

For awhile, it looked like this was going to be the year. The Lady Dolphins struggled to put the bat on the ball in two games Friday and an early game on Saturday, but they somehow found a way to win and rolled into the championship round with a sparkling 3-0 record.

Needing only one win to wrap up the crown, the Lady Dolphins dueled it out with St. James for five scoreless innings. Then, in the top of the sixth, Katie Pauk launched a two-run home run over the left field fence to give the Lady Trojans a 2-0 lead. The game was far from over at that point, but Pauk's dinger clearly took a little wind out of the Lady Dolphins' sails.

And they never really got it back.