Gulf Shores budget outlines capital projects, purchases for 2022
City narrowing down sites for new Justice Center
Gulf Shores, Ala. – (OBA) – The city is moving forward with several capital projects in the upcoming year highlighted in its budget passed at the last city council meeting of the year on Dec. 13. Because of the tourism economy both Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have fiscal years that run Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 rather than the traditional Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 most local government agencies follow.
One expenditure for $3.88 million will go toward a new Justice Center to replace the 38-year-old police station and jail facility behind city hall. The total expenditures in the General Fund for 2022 is more than $50 million.
“They’ve committed to going forward with a new criminal justice facility which is desperately needed,” Police Chief Ed Delmore said. “A study has been done for available sites and it’s narrowed down to less than a handful. The council and the mayor have yet to pick that site although I anticipate they’ll do that very, very soon probably right after the first of the year.”
City Administrator Steve Griffin said money in the 2022 budget will be for getting a design and developing bid documents with a goal of starting construction in 2023.
“We have narrowed the site selection to sites some of which we will have to contract to purchase and agree on a price so I am not able to reveal the site just yet,” Griffin said. “Our schedule would be to select the preferred site by the end of March 2022 so that we can commence final design.”
Another police department addition is not nearly as expensive, just $40,000, but it will give police a new tool for policing from the sky.
“The drone is to search for missing persons, to search for suspects,” Delmore said. “We have several officers who are licensed as drone pilots as does the fire department. The uses for drones in law enforcement has increased significantly over the years and it’s become a valuable tool when used appropriately.”
The police department will also 13 new police cars in 2022 at a cost of $610,400. Delmore said that’s a few more than the department normally purchases in a year but the council recently voted to add three new officers to the force.
For Parks and Recreation, a similar approach to the Justice Center will be used to evaluate and plan for a rebuild of the Kids Park at Sims Park at a cost of $100,000.
“We’re hoping to completely replace kids park at some point in the future,” Director Grant Brown said. “This money is money that we put in the budget to start a planning process to start getting some help to identify what we can put there. Orange Beach replaced their kids park and they were about the same age so ours is getting age on it.”
Until those plans are in place, Gulf Shores will also use some of that money for upkeep on the current park.
“It’s about a half a million-dollar playground to completely wipe out kids park and put a new one in,” Brown said. “Some of the wood’s rotting and we need to swap it out to buy us a couple of years until we can actually figure out what we want to replace it with.”
Here are some of the notable purchases and projects planned for 2022 by department:
FIRE DEPARTMENT
- Oyster Bay Fire Station renovation $400,000
- Fire Training Center $720,000
- New vehicle for new Inspector position $45,000
- Fire station alerting system at stations 1,2 and 3 $100,000
- Five beach 5 UTVs $72,000
- Fire beach replace response vehicles $45,000
POLICE DEPARTMENT
- Police Justice Center design $3.88 million
- Police beach ATVs replace $45,000
- Police drone (asset forfeiture funds) $40,000
- Police replace 13 vehicles, (2 impact fees) $610,400
PARKS AND RECREATION
- Community park development $300,000
- Replace vehicle $37,500
- Study Kids Park playground replacement $100,000
- Bodenhamer parking lot repaving and lighting $150,000 in both 2022 and 2023
PUBLIC WORKS AND ENGINEERING
- Beach renourishment $4.9 million
- Fourth Street Bridge and 1 pedestrian bridge $80,000
- Beach Boulevard improvements – State Route 182 $200,000
- Replace four trucks - two Streets, one custodial one maintenance $150,000
- Knuckle boom replacement $333,000
- 100 horsepower tractor $80,000
- Side brush cutter $140,000
- Rubber track excavator $95,000
- Dump truck $130,000
- Replace vehicle $35,000
RESTORE PROJECTS
- Executive branch, NFWF Oyster Bay restoration $875,000
- Executive branch, Little Lagoon Restoration $2.5 million
- Engineering Department, Gulf Coast Center for Ecotourism Improvements 5.7 million
- Engineering Department, Laguna Cove protection project $870,000
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