Group keeps eye on Bayou development

Consider these items from Press-Register news archives:

March 2007: RBC Centura Bank buys 11 AmSouth Bank offices from Regions Bank, including the branch on South Wintzell Street in Bayou La Batre, for $1.59 million.

December 2006: More than 18 acres on Padgett Switch Road in Bayou La Batre are purchased for just under $1 million by Guntersville, Ala., developers who plan residential construction.

June 2006: Ficarino Properties acquires a former seafood handling facility at 14090 Shell Belt Road in Bayou La Batre for $650,000 from Gulf City Seafood Inc.

Or this, from a December 2006 story that began, "The tide of the real estate market here has rushed out as quickly as it rolled in last year, real estate agents and property owners say. But all said they expect investors -- and their cash -- to roll into town again eventually."

That December item chronicled the experience of Bayou residents Allen and Mary LaForce, who, witnessing the run-up in real estate values before Hurricane Katrina, put their home and 1.5 acres on the market for $350,000. In Katrina's wake, their home was leveled, and their asking price had fallen to $240,000. Although no one was buying, the couple said they still believed the Bayou market would rebound. "This is the last frontier on the Alabama coast that development hasn't touched -- yet," Allen LaForce was quoted as saying. "It'll come here eventually, and we can wait."

The "it" that will eventually come -- new coastal development, accompanied by rising prices -- could do a lot of good, but has also caused some concern. Given that, a group of 39 representatives of "water-dependent businesses" from Orange Beach to Bayou La Batre has started a campaign to raise awareness about the people who could get squeezed out as development pressures rise.

"We're working to try to keep waterfront access -- not just industry-related access, but the peripheral businesses like ice houses, boat builders, bait shops and net builders," said Jody Thompson, an extension agent at the Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center, who is a facilitator for the Alabama Working Waterfront Coalition.

In Mobile County alone, the coalition cites:

-- $36 million as the dockside value of seafood landings.

-- $135 million worth of seafood products processed annually.

-- 240 working shrimp boats.

-- 1,000 other commercial fishing licenses.

-- Eight shipyards collectively generating revenue of $100 million a year and the presence of 14 other businesses, including net makers, fuelers and general suppliers. The new coalition is aided by a $90,000 grant from the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, an education and advocacy effort of Auburn and Mississippi State universities.

The coalition plans to map water-dependent businesses in Mobile County, a process that will take through year's end to finish, Thompson said. The resulting data will set a baseline from which change can be monitored and provide a tool for community education efforts.

Thompson said coalition members include not only folks who make their living on the water, but also tourism officials and even Realtors. "To really be an effective group, you have to reach out to what may be adversarial positions," she said.

The coalition is "a real stakeholder, grassroots effort" to preserve working waterfront, she said, while also dealing with "the realities of coastal development."

Readers seeking more information about the coalition may contact Thompson at 438-5690.

(Business Editor K.A. Turner can be reached at the Press-Register, P.O. Box 2488, Mobile, AL 36652-2488, by calling 219-5644 or e-mailing kturner@press-register.com)

State to fund Coden center

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs on Monday approved a $685,500 grant to buy and renovate a Coden building for use as a community center, according to Mobile County officials.

Residents say the state funding is great, but they still have to raise another $250,000 to complete all the renovations for the 7,500-square-foot building on 8.33 acres at Alabama 188 and Callahan Road.

The extra funding is needed to pave the parking lot, among other things, said Jim Fuller, head of the South Bay Community Alliance, which will operate the center once it opens.

A paved parking lot is particularly important as county officials want to use the community center as a distribution site following hurricanes, Fuller said. If the parking lot isn't paved, he said, 18-wheelers full of ice, water and food, as well as residents looking for help, would be driving on mud.

ADECA grant money cannot be used for the parking lot, according to Annette McGrady, a consultant who is helping Mobile County manage Hurricane Katrina-related funding. The state money will pay for the $375,000 purchase price of the property, renovation of the building and establishment of a septic system there, she said.

Fuller said he planned to meet with state Sen. Ben Brooks, R-Mobile, and that other members of the alliance have met with legislators in Washington, D.C., to try to find additional funding.

The Mobile County Commission on Monday voted to purchase the property from owner James Faulk.

Commissioner Mike Dean said the center would provide space for community meetings, in addition to being used by recovery workers and to store emergency equipment. He said the property could even have a helicopter pad and house a fire truck for a volunteer unit.

The county originally requested and was granted $168,000 in federal funds -- channeled through ADECA -- to replace the center's roof, which was damaged during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

In November 2006, the commission decided to change the request and ask for $700,000 to build a new 3,000-square-foot community center.

County officials said two private buildings that were once used for community gatherings also had been destroyed by Katrina, so the old, 2,000-square-foot community center would not be large enough to meet Coden's needs.

In January, officials agreed on the building that Faulk had been letting the community use free of charge.

Money arrives to rebuild Grand Bay school

More than a year and a half after Hurricane Katrina damaged much of Grand Bay Middle School, the Mobile County school system received $4 million from the state to rebuild.

Construction can start in about two weeks, officials announced.

"It's great news," said Grand Bay Principal Suzanne Crist. "We're just excited that we're finally getting started."

All of Grand Bay's sixth-graders have been attending class in about a dozen portables behind the school. And, since there is no longer a cafeteria, lunch has been brought in every day from nearby Castlen Elementary School.

Students have been eating outside on picnic tables or in "cafes" set up inside portables.

Huey Belaire, facilities coordinator for Mobile County schools, said the system received $3.2 million from the Alabama Department of Community and Economic Affairs sometime last week. And the school system got another $800,000 from the state's Public Schools and College Authority on April 13.

The school system received the funds less than two weeks after the Press-Register ran a story revealing that rebuilding funds promised by Gov. Bob Riley back in August still had not come in. That promise came a year after Katrina.

Grand Bay's story was much different from that of two Enterprise schools damaged in a deadly March 1 tornado. Six weeks after that storm, the Alabama Legislature voted to secure $32 million in state money to rebuild those two schools.

State and local officials said late last month that Grand Bay's money was going through a bureaucratic process, during which several agencies, including the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Mobile County Commission, had to sign off.

Now, all that's left is for the contractor, Rod Cooke Construction Incorporated, to sign the contract and begin work. "We have all the funding, and the contractor's ready to go to work," Belaire said.

Construction should take another year and a half, officials have said, meaning the school will be completed during the fall of 2008.

"We'll get that school back up and running," said Rod Cooke of the construction firm that bears his name.

When Katrina made landfall Aug. 29, 2005, the roof of Grand Bay Middle School's main building came off, allowing the ample rain to pour in and extensively damage the floors and ceilings. Mold quickly covered the walls.

Riley toured the damage a few days later, assuring school officials that local money would not have to be spent to rebuild.

Grand Bay's students were sent about 15 miles away to Causey Middle School in west Mobile, where they attended class on a split-shift schedule for about four months.

Students have since returned to their school, with the seventh- and eighth-graders attending class in a new building that the Mobile County Public School System had already planned to build before Katrina.

The school board received $1.7 million from its insurance company, which was $4 million less than it needed to rebuild. With no word on whether any disaster relief funding, state or otherwise, would come through, officials demolished the main building last year, preparing to go it alone if necessary.

Crist said she learned that the school system received the money last week, but, because school has been out for spring break, she has not been able to tell her students. She said she plans to make such an announcement over the school's intercom when the students return Monday.

"They'll be excited. I know their parents will be," Crist said.

During construction, the schools' student drop-off and pick-up lines will have to be rerouted. And students will have to get used to the construction noise. But, Crist said, "this is a good thing."

Weather beckons D.I. Race sailors

The days leading up to last year's Dauphin Island Race were filled with weather concerns as gray as the skies on race day.

All told, only about half of the 100 or so boats that started last year's race actually finished.

"That was a survival fest last year," Jim Haley, race chairman from the host Lake Forest Yacht Club, said of the 2006 event that was dampened by high winds and seas.

This time, the marine forecast for Mobile Bay calls for variable winds of 5-10 knots and a mostly smooth surface, which is welcome news for the 127 boats registered as of Thursday for today's 49th annual race, the nation's largest one-day point-to-point sailboat race.

"We've seen a flurry of registrations this week," Haley said. "It's shaping up to be a beautiful weekend."

The Dauphin Island Race runs about 18 miles from the northern end of Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island. Fans planning to attend the race are invited to watch from the water or the island.

The first of three starts will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the sailing of the PHRF Division, while the Portsmouth Division will move at 9:45 and the One-Designs will get going at 10.

Any boats still on the water after 5 p.m. will not be scored.

As always, race officials say weather will play an important role. It won't be nearly as overwhelming as last year, they said, when wind gusts hit 44 miles per hour and swells reached as high as five feet in some areas.

"A lot of boats got knocked over last year," Haley said. "If the wind's blowing as hard as it was last year it's absolutely miserable, but if it's down around five (knots) it's also miserable. You don't have enough wind to make your boat go.

"From what I understand, it won't be a slow, slow race this year but it won't be a fast one either. It'll be a lot more comfortable. Most everybody will finish."

After today's race, onshore activities begin at 4:30 p.m. on Dauphin Island and conclude with the trophy presentation at 7:30.

This year's race is dedicated to Lake Forest Yacht Club member Brenda "Missy" deAngelo, who passed away in February after a lengthy illness.