Press Release: N. Gunter Guy Jr. Appointed Alabama Conservation Commissioner

  

N. Gunter Guy Jr. Appointed Alabama Conservation Commissioner




January 21, 2011

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has appointed N. Gunter Guy Jr. as Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Guy is a graduate of Auburn University and the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. Most recently he practiced law with the firm of Ball, Ball, Mathews & Novak, P.A. in Montgomery.

Guy is a native of Alabama and lives on a family farm near Pintlala, Ala. He is an avid hunter and angler and looks forward to serving as Conservation Commissioner. “I am honored to have been selected by Governor Bentley for this position,” he said. “I have a lifelong love of the outdoors and am looking forward to overseeing the agency that is responsible for managing much of Alabama’s natural resources.”

One priority Guy will have is helping fulfill Gov. Bentley’s directive to state agencies to create jobs. Rebuilding the hotel and convention center at Gulf State Park will be a priority. “We need to get a first class facility built on the Gulf Coast so that in-state and out-of-state groups will have a place to meet in Alabama,” Guy said.

Guy is married to the former Patsy Lynn Wright of Montgomery. They have two children: Catherine, who attends Auburn University, and Ashley, who is a student at Hooper Academy.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources promotes wise stewardship, management and enjoyment of Alabama’s natural resources through five divisions: Marine Police, Marine Resources, State Lands, State Parks, and Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. To learn more about ADCNR, visit www.outdooralabama.com .

Govenor Riley signs bill for beach hotel at Gulf State Park

Originally Published by the Mobile Press Register

Link: http://www.al.com/news/press-register/metro.ssf?/base/news/1242206106133410.xml&coll=3



Wednesday, May 13, 2009

By GEORGE R. ALTMAN Capital Bureau

Gov. Bob Riley on Tuesday approved a compromise bill to bring a new, beachfront hotel and convention center to Gulf State Park, after years of court battles over the project.

But legal problems for the planned hotel may not be over.

Senate Bill 254 requires that room rates at the hotel, planned for public land, be reasonable in comparison with similar hotels.

"Because a four-star hotel's rates would not be reasonable to the public, if Governor Riley violates this section of SB 254, I will carry him back to court so fast it will make his head swim," former Conservation Commissioner Charley Grimsley said in an e-mail.

Lee Sentell, director of the Alabama Tourism Department, said the hotel's rates will only need to be comparable to the nearby Perdido Beach Resort, which has rates that meet luxury standards set by a national hotel statistics organization. Sentell said it costs more to build a hotel on the beach, so the rates must be higher.

"You cannot put millions of dollars in the ground and then expect to build a Motel 6 on top of the sand," he said.

The planned hotel has been a subject of controversy for years.

After 2004's Hurricane Ivan destroyed the state's previous hotel in the park, the Gulf State Park Lodge, Riley backed a plan to replace it by subleasing land to the Atlanta-based West Paces Hotel Group.

Grimsley and other opponents sued, four years of litigation followed and the state's highest court ruled against Riley in late March.

Soon after that ruling, both sides worked out a compromise in the Legislature, through a bill sponsored by Sen. Larry Dixon, R-Montgomery.

The bill required legislative approval for the long-term lease or sale of other state beaches but allowed a lease for the former site of Gulf State Park Lodge. The bill also mandated that the lease be between 30 and 70 years, construction be competitively bid, state employees run the convention center, local governments enter into negotiations for paying maintenance costs, and the hotel's rates be reasonable.

Riley signed the bill into law Tuesday in Gulf Shores, but disagreements persist.

A clause in the bill refers to a state law, which mandates that contracts "shall provide for the reasonableness of the concessionaire's rates and charges to the public, and such rates shall be judged primarily by comparison with those rates or charges for facilities and services of comparable character."

Dixon and Sentell pointed to the nearby Perdido Beach Resort as a comparable facility.

For a single guest staying one night, the lowest available rate at Perdido is $191.86, as a seven-day average. Booking information from the hotel's Web site shows that the lowest available nightly rate this week ranges from $269, for a Friday check-in, to $159, for Sunday and Monday check-ins.

The average cost for Perdido is almost 2.5 times the average daily rate for the region and falls within the "luxury" price classification, according to information from Smith Travel Research, a Tennessee-based group that compiles statistics on hotels nationwide.

"Governor Riley wanted a four-star luxury hotel whose rates would be unreasonable to the public. SB 254 stops that by requiring reasonable rates," Grimsley's e-mail said.

Riley's office did not return messages seeking comment. Sentell said room rates would have to be low enough to draw visitors but high enough to pay for construction costs.

Dixon said he believes Grimsley will lose if he takes the matter to court again. He added that the most important part of his bill is that it protects more than 4 miles of beaches beyond the old Gulf State Park Lodge site.

"Basically, nobody has to worry about some developer getting hold of that beachfront from now on," Dixon said.

Gulf State Park officials seek to dredge lakes, sink reefs

Originally Published by the Mobile Press Register

Monday, September 08, 2008 By RYAN DEZEMBER Staff Reporter

GULF SHORES — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public input on proposals from state officials to dredge parts of Shelby and Middle lakes as well as to turn Gulf State Park's old fishing pier into artificial reefs.

The dredge project, according to a Corps of Engineers public notice, is aimed not only at clearing out sand that blew into the lakes during hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, but also at rebuilding Gulf-front dunes.

To achieve these twin goals, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has applied to dredge 44,528 cubic yards of sand — nearly 2,800 dump trucks worth — from a 13.8-acre area in the southern part of Lake Shelby. The sand would then be pumped through an existing culvert beneath Alabama 182 to a 10.2-acre site just west of the park's fishing pier.

From the southeastern-most 16.3 acres of Middle Lake, the Conservation Department has asked to dredge and pump 52,594 cubic yards of sand. Those 3,300 truckloads would be pumped beneath the beach highway to a 9.1-acre area west of the park's beach pavilion, according to the proposal.

Once on the beach side of the highway, the sand will be shaped to replicate the contour of the dunes as they existed before the storms. Salt-tolerant plants and sand fencing will also be installed to help the restored dunes hold their shape, the corps said.

Besides wanting to improve habitat in the dunes around the Gulf State Park's fishing pier, Conservation Department officials have said they seek to better the living conditions for wildlife on the water bottom near the pier.

In a separate proposal, state officials have asked permission to tear down what remains of the park's old fishing pier, which was built in 1968 and destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and turn the material into 10 artificial reefs.

The reefs would measure 25 feet by 50 feet, according to the corps, and be sunk around the new fishing pier. Those that wind up in less than 20 feet of water will be

6 feet tall or less, and those in more than 20 feet of water will protrude from the bottom as much as 9 feet, according to a public notice.

The state also wants to install 20 round reefs that are

5 feet tall and 20 pyramid-shaped concrete reefs that are about 8 feet tall around the new pier.

Park Superintendent Hugh Branyan said state officials are hoping the reefs will lure, in addition to more fish, different species than are normally found near shore.

"We're thinking that even some snapper and grouper will come in," he said. "They're usually farther out but this will be a pretty good bunch of reefs."

Currently under construction, the new 1,512-foot-long pier, which sits about just east of the old structure, is expected to open by February. Nearly twice as long as the old pier and 50 percent wider, the new structure carries a $14 million price tag.

Correspondence regarding both projects should be directed to District Commander, U.S. Army Engineer District, Mobile, P.O. Box 2288, Mobile, AL 36628-0001, Attention: Regulatory District. Comments on the pier proposal must be received by Sept. 17, and those concerning the dredge project are due by Sept. 24.

Work to Start on Gulf State Park Pier

Originally published by the Mobile Press Register

Work to start on pier at beach
Friday, October 19, 2007
By JEFF DUTE Outdoors Editor

John Giannini, a partner in J&M Tackle of Orange Beach and an accomplished custom rod builder, was so excited when he found out in August the Gulf State Park Pier was going to be rebuilt that he did something he hadn't done in the previous 10 years.

"I took basically two days off from work to build a beautiful rod for me to take out on that pier when it reopens," he said.

With the announcement Thursday by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources that construction on the pier would begin in mid-November and that it should be completed within 15 months, Giannini should be able to put his new rod to use in February 2009 or sooner.

He likely won't be alone.

"Of all the calls we get concerning what we're doing down there with Gulf State Park, the lodge, convention center, campground, whatever, they run 100 to 1 concerning what's going on with the pier versus the lodge," said Terry Boyd, chief engineer for the conservation department's Engineering Division. "I think getting the pier back will make a big difference not only to the park, but to the two cities (Orange Beach and Gulf Shores).

"With the snapper limits being lowered and the price of gas affecting charter prices, the pier will allow a lot more people who would plan their vacations around fishing that pier access to the Gulf again."

The new plans call for the pier to be built roughly 300 feet east of the old pier site to get it away from an area of beach that blew through to Alabama 182 when Hurricane Ivan destroyed the pier in September 2004, Boyd said.

It will be 1,512 feet long, 20 feet wide and have a positive elevation to the decking of 20 feet above sea level, according to engineering specifications. The old pier was 875 feet long, 14 feet wide and had a positive elevation of 18 feet.

The ambitious plans for the pier are reflected in its price tag. When the original low bidder pulled its submission because it had not added in several hundred thousand dollars in insurance costs, Boyd said that left the approximately $16.4 million bid from LCI Inc. of Memphis as the winner.

"The original design for the old pier called for it to be 1,200 feet long, but when the bids came in, it was decided the state didn't have the money to build a pier that long so it was rebid at 875 feet," Boyd said. "When those bids came in six months later, we ended up getting less pier for more money.

"Using that history, I argued against rebidding this time and I am happy to say I prevailed."
Boyd said the new design should ensure that the next big storm does not shut the pier down for three years.

"If a storm does hit, the pier is designed so that it can take out the panels more easily without damaging the superstructure," he said. "If that happens and the superstructure is fine, the pier could be back up and open for business within weeks, not months."

Giannini, who first began spending his summers on the pier at age 11, said he and many other pier fishermen will regain a part of their selves when the new pier opens.

"My parents used that pier as a baby sitter," he said. "I, and 15 or 20 other guys my age, spent up to six days a week out there during the summer, and there was an amazing group of older men who pretty much took care of us.

"I learned manners on that pier. I learned how to fish, how to get along with other people and how to compete because pier fishing is the most competitive kind of fishing. There are a bunch of us 40- to 45-year-olds who grew up on that pier that are thinking, 'Hey, we're going to be the old guys on the pier now, the mentors. We're not going to be the little brats.'"