Orange Beach City Council Agenda: $1.5M Shooting Complex Clubhouse, Road Resurfacing, Police Drone Trial

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — A $1.5 million GOMESA grant for a clubhouse at the city’s shooting complex, a nearly $459,000 road resurfacing contract and a police drone trial that could turn into a paid multiyear deal were among the items on the Orange Beach City Council’s agenda for its joint regular and work session Tuesday evening, Oct. 6, at City Hall.

The packed agenda, which also included a federal grant to replace firefighters’ breathing gear, money to raise Jubilee Point Road and early planning for a new civic center, offered a broad look at the infrastructure and public safety projects the beachfront city is lining up for the year ahead. The meeting was scheduled for 5 p.m. in the council chambers at Orange Beach City Hall.

Items listed for the regular session were set for council votes, while work session items are discussed first and, according to city materials, do not come up for a vote until the council’s next regular session, scheduled for Oct. 20.

Shooting complex clubhouse funded through GOMESA

One of the larger items on the work session agenda was a $1.5 million grant agreement with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to help build a clubhouse at the Orange Beach Shooting Complex on Russian Road. The money comes from the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, or GOMESA.

As background, GOMESA is a 2006 federal law that shares a portion of revenue from offshore oil and gas leasing in the Gulf with the four Gulf producing states — Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — and with certain coastal counties and parishes. The money is generally directed toward coastal conservation, restoration and related projects.

A memo from Assistant Coastal Resources Director Nicole Woerner laid out what the grant would cover.

“This GOMESA project will fund engineering and design, permitting and grant administration activities and also support construction of the multi-purpose Complex Clubhouse that will serve as the operational hub of the Orange Beach Shooting Complex,” the memo states. “The facility currently includes five skeet and trap fields with a 300-yard rifle range under construction by the city to accommodate additional shooting disciplines.”

According to city documents, the clubhouse and its parking would be built behind, or south of, the existing trap and skeet facility.

Survey to cover clubhouse and safe room site

The same property is also planned as the site of a 10,000-square-foot first-responder safe room complex, which would sit southwest of the shooting facilities. Because the two projects are close together, the work session agenda included a professional services agreement with Scarlett Sadler Group LLC, doing business as Civil Southeast, along with a task order for land surveying that would cover both sites.

The cost of that surveying task order is listed as about $11,000 in city documents; the figure appears as $10,950 in the agenda summary and as $10,590 in other meeting materials.

“The safe room architect, Adams Stewart, is using Civil SE and it made sense to have them complete the survey for the shooting complex property,” Woerner’s memo states.

2026 roadway resurfacing

On the regular session agenda, the council was set to consider awarding the city’s 2026 Roadway Resurfacing Project to Arrington Curb & Excavation Inc. for an amount not to exceed $458,990.52. The proposed agreement also includes unit pricing of $1 per cubic yard for the optional purchase and delivery of asphalt millings, which the city can use for public works projects.

Asphalt millings are the ground-up material removed from old road surfaces during resurfacing. They are commonly reused as a base or surface material for parking areas, shoulders and unpaved roads.

Police drone trial and future costs

The council also had on its agenda a product agreement with Motorola Solutions Inc. for a trial Drone as First Responder program for the Orange Beach Police Department. Under such programs, a drone can be launched to the scene of a call to give officers a view of the situation before or as they arrive.

According to the agenda, the first year would be provided at no promotional cost. However, the agreement would automatically convert to a paid multiyear contract for Years 2 and 3 unless the city gives written notice of cancellation at least 90 days before the trial ends. The agenda lists that paid term at $527,994, or $175,998 per year. The agenda summary does not break down how the total is allocated across the contract years; $527,994 is equal to three annual payments of $175,998.

Digital forensics software for police

Another police item was a software service agreement with Magnet Forensics LLC for $18,315 in digital forensics licensing. City documents describe it as a renewal of an earlier contract.

In a memo to the council, Police Chief Trent Johnson wrote that the GrayKey tool associated with the company is the only one able to override passwords on iPhones seized under a valid warrant “when a suspect refuses to provide a password.”

Firefighter breathing apparatus grant

The work session agenda included a fiscal year 2025 Assistance to Firefighters Grant agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The grant would provide $757,711.42 in federal money toward 75 self-contained breathing apparatus, or SCBA, units for the Orange Beach Fire Department. The city’s required 5% match is $37,885.58, bringing the total cost to about $795,597, according to city documents.

SCBA units are the air tanks, masks and harnesses firefighters wear to breathe safely in smoke-filled or hazardous environments. The Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, administered by FEMA, helps fire departments pay for equipment, training and other needs.

Raising Jubilee Point Road

Council members were also set to discuss a Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grant award contract with the Baldwin County Commission. The contract would provide $950,000 toward the Jubilee Point Road Elevation Project, which has a total projected cost of $1,047,612.11. According to the agenda, the city must provide a 5% cash match of $50,000 toward design.

CDBG-DR funds are federal dollars, distributed through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that help communities recover from and reduce the risk of future disasters. Elevating low-lying roads is one common use in coastal areas prone to flooding.

Early work on a new civic center

A $16,300 task order with GeoCon Engineering & Materials Testing Inc. was on the work session agenda for a final geotechnical report on the site of a proposed new civic center. According to city documents, the proposed site is near the PowerSouth electrical substation on the south side of Canal Road, near the library.

Geotechnical studies examine soil and subsurface conditions to help engineers design foundations and determine whether a site can support a planned building.

GeoCon was also slated for a separate $10,000 task order for special inspections and materials testing during renovation of the old finance building, at the corner of Orange Beach Boulevard and West Oak Ridge Drive. City documents refer to that building as Orange Beach Medical Center South.

Other regular session items

The regular session agenda also listed:

• Bills: Payment of $885,114 to vendors for goods and services covering Sept. 16 through Oct. 7.
• Credit card services: Accepting a proposal from Pinnacle Bank for municipal commercial credit card and expense management services.
• Safety action plan: Accepting a proposal from AECOM Technical Services Inc. for survey modeling, design and engineering services for a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan.
• Bridge inspections: A $2,800 proposal from Safe Span LLC for routine bridge safety inspections, which city documents say are required every two years.
• Nesting birds: Amending a grant award agreement with the National Audubon Society for stewardship of coastal Alabama beach-nesting bird habitat, increasing the sub-award of federal NOAA RESTORE Science Program funds to $118,805 and extending the work into a fourth year.
• Aquatics Center: A performance contract with Carolyn K. Collins for water fitness instruction. The instructor’s last name is spelled Collings in some city documents.
• Human resources software: A software service agreement with NeoGov for Learn, Policy and Recall subscriptions, listed at $47,446 for the first year and $76,735 for the second.
• Estuary program: Appropriating $20,000 to the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program for fiscal year 2026.

Alcohol licenses and a storage expansion

The council was also scheduled to consider a special events retail liquor license for Bottles Up Mobile Inc. for “The Marshals Monster Mash,” set for Oct. 16 at the Orange Beach Event Center at The Wharf. A separate request sought a retail beer and table wine license for The Salty Tile LLC, located on Perdido Beach Boulevard in the Publix shopping center.

The agenda also included a public hearing and first reading of an ordinance granting conditional use approval in Case No. 0801-CU-26 for an expansion of All About Storage at 24140 Canal Road. According to city documents, the business is seeking to add five buildings.

Other work session discussions

In addition to the grants and contracts above, the work session agenda included:

• Board appointments: The expired three-year terms of Linda Bradley and Ryan Long on the Board of Adjustment, which ended Sept. 24, and an unexpired-term vacancy on the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism Board of Directors left by Penny Groux.
• Ice rink sponsorship: Sponsoring the Wharf Ice Rink, which is scheduled for Nov. 13, 2026, through Jan. 18, 2027. Sponsorship levels are bronze at $1,800, silver at $3,000 and gold at $5,000.
• Emergency facilities: A memorandum of understanding with Columbia Southern University to use the school’s facilities as an evacuation location during emergencies.
• Senior Center copier: A three-year state bid rental agreement with Sharp Electronics Corp. for a copier.
• Public relations: Renewing an agency agreement with JJPR LLC for public relations and marketing at $2,500 a month. The current one-year contract ends Nov. 4.
• Stop-loss insurance: Buying stop-loss coverage from Prudential for calendar year 2027. Unlike many local governments that run fiscal years from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, Orange Beach and Gulf Shores operate on a calendar-year budget.
• Spring theater: Professional services agreements for the city’s 2027 spring theater production with J.F. Morris Performance LLC for $12,350 and with Heidi Lemon for $7,540.

What comes next

Items placed on a work session agenda in Orange Beach are typically discussed first and brought back for a formal vote at a later regular meeting. City materials indicate that the shooting complex survey and other work session items would not be voted on until the Oct. 20 regular session. Residents who want to follow these projects or comment on them can attend that meeting at City Hall, where council meetings are open to the public.