Baldwin occupancy, retail sales increased during fall concert series, latest figures show

Published: Friday, December 24, 2010, 5:34 AM

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Two months ago, as coastal leaders were working to win back visitors with a series of high-profile concerts, a married couple from Marshall, Texas, left a note in a condominium guest book.

They had been coming to the area for 25 years, they wrote, but had decided to travel to Mexico during the summer because of the BP PLC oil spill.

Curious about how Alabama’s beaches were faring, they returned for a Brad Paisley show in Gulf Shores.

“October was great — less crowds — more laid back,” their note stated. “We were happy to see that Gulf Shores and Orange Beach haven’t changed.”

They promised to return.

Comments like that one have delivered a boost of confidence for coastal communities trying to revive tourism after a summer wrecked by the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

“In one little note is exactly what we’ve been trying to do,” said Mike Foster, vice president of marketing for Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism. “We’re trying to create almost a viral campaign — that Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are OK.”

New data, released this week, show that the concert series helped spark bigger crowds this fall than a year ago. October’s retail sales jumped 9 percent from last year, while lodging revenue rose by more than 5 percent.

Hotel occupancy kept moving upward in November, increasing almost 6.5 percent.

Still, room costs were much less expensive, on average, than before, down 44 percent. November’s actual lodging revenue figures were not yet available.

Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon described the concert series as “tremendous” and said that plans were in motion to launch an eight- or nine-month run of musical shows starting in March.

Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft has been pushing oil giant BP to continue marketing the clean beach. He said that the fall events not only generated needed revenue, but showed off the coast’s recovery from the spill.

“It’s very important that we get the word out early so that we can try to build momentum,” Kennon said. “We need a big summer next year to help our merchants get out of the deep hole that was dug for them by BP.”

Foster said he believes that more and more tourists will start to return in 2011. “We feel very, very confident we will re-win the hearts and minds of those people who have loved us for years and years and years,” he said.

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Chickasaw City Council votes to increase sales tax by half-cent

Published: Tuesday, November 09, 2010, 8:47 PM ??? Updated: Tuesday, November 09, 2010, 8:48 PM

CHICKASAW, Alabama -- The Chickasaw City Council voted tonight to raise sales tax by a half-cent amid outcries from residents that the tax could cripple the city.

"Have you taken into consideration what this tax increase is going to do?" resident Ray Griffith asked the council before the group unanimously approved the tax. "You’re going to kill any new businesses that wanted to come here. People are going to leave. People won’t want to live here."

Mayor Byron Pittman responded that the tax "was a last resort," given a budget shortfall of about $238,000. The half-cent tax increase will cost each resident about $5 more a year, he said, and bring in a projected $150,000 by the end of the year.

"I, as a resident, would rather pay that than lose a policeman," Pittman said.

The remaining deficit, about $80,000, will be recouped in budget cuts, said Councilman Adam Bourne, who chairs the city’s finance committee.

"We’re trying to grow the city and make it better and preserve our core city services," Bourne said during the meeting. "We have to be responsible. We can’t make every decision on what would be politically popular."

The council voted for the half-cent tax increase after defeating a proposed 1-cent tax increase, which would have brought the city’s total sales tax to 10.5 cents, higher than the total sales tax in the city of Mobile.

The approval of the half-cent increase brings the total sales tax in Chickasaw to 10 cents.

The council also unanimously approved the city’s $4.15 million budget tonight, which included cuts to the city’s street-cleaning services and a reduction of the lights that will illuminate Chickasaw’s streets, Bourne said.

Council members also anticipate a reduction in expenses for officers’ uniforms and computer software.

"We had one- time expenses this year that we don’t anticipate for next year," Bourne said.

The budget preserved the city’s workforce, Bourne said.

The vote comes on the heels of the city’s announcement that it plans to break from the Mobile County Public School System.

In doing so, Chickasaw would take ownership of the three school buildings within its limits — Hamilton Elementary, the Chickasaw School of Mathematics and Science and the former Chickasaw School of Mathematics and Science, which is temporarily serving as an alternative school.

Pittman said the tax increase had nothing to do with the city’s plans to split from the school system.

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