Gulf Shores City Council members worked through a lengthy agenda of municipal business during a July 20 work session, previewing a range of items headed to a vote at the council’s July 27 regular meeting. The docket spanned construction spending, transportation licensing, personnel reclassification, recruitment contracts, public safety equipment, and youth sports hosting agreements, a cross-section of the business a fast-growing resort city manages in a single week.
Among the larger-ticket items discussed was a series of four change orders tied to construction of the pedestrian bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway at East Second Street. The bridge is one of the city’s signature infrastructure projects, linking the main beachside part of Gulf Shores with the districts north of the waterway and giving pedestrians and cyclists a safe crossing over one of the busiest commercial waterways on the Gulf Coast.
The changes include additional steel to increase wind capacity on the bridge towers at a cost of $265,821, a structural design review for $54,258, and the design and installation of structural glass along the walkway for $160,334. Wind loading is a central design consideration for any tall coastal structure, and the added steel reflects engineering refinements meant to make the towers withstand the hurricane-force gusts the Gulf Coast routinely produces.
The city is also set to receive a $443,192 credit for work on two plaza areas that has since been folded into a separate GOMESA-funded project. GOMESA — the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act — sends a share of offshore energy revenue to Gulf Coast states and their coastal communities, and Gulf Shores has used its allocation for resilience and public infrastructure work. Moving the plaza work into that funding stream removes a substantial obligation from the bridge budget.
Taken together, the four change orders would leave the city owing $37,221, while still preserving a contingency fund balance of $151,039 for the bridge project. Council members spent part of the work session confirming that the net figure and the remaining contingency kept the project inside the financial envelope the city approved when construction began.
Change orders are a routine feature of large public construction, but they draw scrutiny in coastal resort cities where projects carry both engineering risk and a public profile. Each of the four items before the council added scope — stronger towers, verified structural design, and glass panels along the walkway — that will be visible in the finished structure, and the offsetting credit for the plaza work kept the cumulative cost close to neutral. Staff presented the package as a single vote so the council could see the whole financial picture of the bridge at once rather than approving pieces of it over successive meetings.
Taxi Franchise and City Staffing
Council also considered authorizing a taxi franchise for Action Taxi to operate within Gulf Shores, part of the city’s ongoing oversight of for-hire vehicle services operating in the resort community. Franchises let the city vet operators, set insurance and vehicle standards, and keep accountable the companies that ferry tourists between the airport shuttles, condominiums, restaurants, and beach access points during the visitor season.
Several staffing changes were also on the agenda. The council discussed reclassifying a handful of city positions, including naming Blake Phelps as director of strategic initiatives and Amy McKenzie as planning budget and manager, along with converting a part-time accountant role into a full-time grants and administrative support specialist position.
The reclassifications reflect how the city’s administrative needs have shifted as its budget and project load have grown. A dedicated strategic initiatives director and a combined planning and budget manager give the administration more capacity to manage the capital program and long-range planning work, while the full-time grants role is aimed at chasing the state and federal funding that has become increasingly important to Gulf Coast cities competing for resilience and infrastructure dollars.
Separately, the city is looking to bring on two outside recruitment firms to help fill key vacancies: Next Move Group, at a cost of $19,750, to help find an economic development manager, and Find Great People, at $25,000, to help fill a new communications and engagement director position. Both roles have become standard in cities Gulf Shores’ size, where economic development and public communication are treated as professional disciplines rather than side duties.
Using search firms for executive-level hiring is a common practice among Alabama municipalities, which often compete with private-sector employers for the same small pool of experienced candidates. The combined cost of the two contracts is modest against the salaries at stake, and council members generally view professional searches as a way to widen the candidate field beyond local applicants.
A Body Scanner for the Justice Center
City officials also discussed a $142,500 purchase of a full-body scanner from Tek-84 for the city’s new justice center. The scanner would screen people entering the detention side of the facility, giving officers a technology-based look at anything a person might be carrying that a pat-down or metal detector would miss.
Deputy Chief Joe Taylor told council the scanner would help detention officers identify contraband brought into the city jail. Contraband introductions are a persistent problem in correctional settings of every size, and full-body screening at intake has become the standard countermeasure, catching items that traditional walk-through metal detectors cannot detect because they contain no metal.
The purchase would be funded through the Municipal Court Judicial Fund rather than the city’s general budget. That fund draws from court costs and fees associated with cases heard in Gulf Shores Municipal Court, meaning the money is restricted in its use and is generally applied to court and detention-related operations — a fit that made the scanner purchase easier for council members to endorse.
The new justice center consolidates police, court, and detention functions that were previously spread across facilities, and outfitting it with current screening technology was part of the plan from the outset. Equipment purchases of this kind are typically timed to the building’s commissioning so the technology is in place before the facility reaches full operation.
Sportsplex Agreements Keep Championships Coming
Council additionally reviewed two agreements with the Alabama High School Athletic Association to continue hosting the softball regional tournament and the outdoor track championships at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex, events that bring student-athletes and their families to the city each year and support local tourism-related business.
The Sportsplex has become a cornerstone of the city’s effort to fill hotel rooms and restaurants outside the traditional beach season. Championship events land in the spring, when beach traffic is lighter, and the visiting teams’ families book rooms, eat out, and shop in Gulf Shores for the length of the tournament. Hosting agreements with the AHSAA lock in that economic activity year after year and give the city a recurring return on its investment in the fields and track.
Regional softball and state track events also carry a civic payoff beyond lodging receipts. Gulf Shores builds name recognition with Alabama families every spring, and many of the students who compete there return later as vacationers. City staff treat the AHSAA relationship as an asset to be maintained, which is why the agreements came before the council for formal renewal rather than rolling over automatically. The Sportsplex’s lighted fields and track have also positioned the city to attract travel-ball tournaments and amateur events beyond the high school calendar, extending the facilities’ usefulness across more of the year.
The work session also touched on other matters that are being detailed in separate city announcements, including recognition of the Gulf Shores Fire Department’s junior and adult lifeguards following their showing at the Southeast Regional Lifeguard Competition, a proposal from a newly formed Mardi Gras krewe regarding the city’s 2027 parade, and a proposed overhaul of the city’s Christmas decorations.
The lifeguard recognition follows a strong regional performance against teams from across the Gulf Coast, a point of pride for a department whose beach patrol duties grow every summer with visitation. The Mardi Gras proposal signals continued growth in the city’s carnival season, while the Christmas decoration overhaul reflects the way coastal cities now compete for shoulder-season visitors with holiday light displays and downtown events.
As is typical for Gulf Shores work sessions, no formal votes were taken on July 20. Work sessions exist to let council members question staff, hear objections, and settle details so that the regular meeting a week later can move through the agenda efficiently.
Council members are expected to take up the change orders, taxi franchise, staffing reclassifications, recruitment contracts, body scanner purchase and AHSAA agreements for a vote at the city’s July 27 regular meeting. Residents who want to weigh in on any of the items can address the council during the public comment portion of that meeting, when formal action is scheduled and the votes become part of the city’s record.