Warehouse purchase approved by council

Property on Baldwin County 95 will give city a base of operations north of backbays

Wednesday, August 29, 2007
By RYAN DEZEMBERStaff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH -- Envisioning a base from which to begin offering city services north of the backbays, the City Council on Monday voted unanimously to purchase a warehouse on about 2 acres along Baldwin County 95.

Following a 12-minute closed session the council voted to allow Mayor Pete Blalock to buy the property for the city for $342,880. City Administrator Jeff Moon said the seller is Jeff Powell.

The property sits north of Baldwin County 95's intersections with Baldwin County 20. The location is well north of the current city limits -- closer to Elberta than Orange Beach -- but sits at the junction where city leaders hope a bridge spanning Wolf Bay will one day link Alabama 161 to Baldwin County 95 en route to Interstate 10.

Moon said that while the land may one day sit at a major intersection of a much larger Orange Beach, the city has immediate uses for the warehouse.

Right away the building will be used to store tools and supplies needed to maintain municipal sewer lines north of the Intracoastal Waterway.

It may also be used as a police department substation, general storage for things like Mardi Gras floats, and possibly a place for building inspectors to work from should the thousands of acres to the south that have already been annexed into Orange Beach start to develop, Moon said.

"It would give us a base of operations to serve those residents until the bridge is in and we can make more permanent presence for a town hall annex-type facility to serve our residents that will be over there," the city administrator said.

Moon said city officials hadn't really been looking to buy land in the area, but were approached by Powell, whose proposal grabbed their attention.

"Once we looked at it and everybody started thinking about it, it made sense," Moon said.