Gulf Shores talks SAFER grant, bridge projects, County Road 6

By Crystal Cole
Posted 2/14/17

GULF SHORES - Fire Chief Hartly Brokenshaw approached the Gulf Shores City Council about a federal grant that could give the city the ability to expand its fire protection services.

Brokenshaw …

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Gulf Shores talks SAFER grant, bridge projects, County Road 6

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GULF SHORES - Fire Chief Hartly Brokenshaw approached the Gulf Shores City Council about a federal grant that could give the city the ability to expand its fire protection services.

Brokenshaw said the city has the opportunity to apply for the grant now, which will help supplement the salaries of new firefighters.

“The grant is made available through FEMA and is called a SAFER grant, which stands for Staffing Adequate Fire and Emergency Response,” Brokenshaw said. “It’s a three-year performance period that it goes through.”

Brokenshaw said the grant worked on a graduated scale, with the city having to pick up a larger portion of the salaries as the three years of the grant passed.

“The first year, the city would have to pay 20 percent, the second year they’d have to pay 25 percent and the third year they’d have to pay 65 percent,” Brokenshaw said. “After the third year, the grant is done away with and the city would have to assume the whole amount, but would not be obligated to keep the personnel on if they didn’t need them.”

Brokenshaw said the city currently staffs four stations with a maximum of three personnel at each station. He said with the grant, they could allow stations to stay fully staffed and still be able to cut down on overtime.

“We’re planning on applying for three firefighter/EMT positions through the SAFER grant,” Brokenshaw said.

Brokenshaw said the city had used SAFER grants to help hire employees before, but said some of the requirements to receive the grant had changed.

Brokenshaw added there were potential expansion capabilities in the Oyster Bay area, where he urged the city to try to acquire property currently owned by Riviera Utilities which could be used to help enlarge the department’s operations in that area.

Councilman Jason Dyken said the city’s finance committee had researched both of the proposals.

“With the growth of calls that we’ve been having in the north area of our community, it’s really a requirement for us to continue to move forward,” Dyken said. “We’re doing so very judiciously, though, because we don’t want to overextend our personnel.”

Dyken said the finance committee had unanimous support for moving forward with both requests.

Brokenshaw added that because the response times will be cut tremendously, property owners in that area would likely see a reduction in fire insurance costs.

Bridge Projects

Public Works Director Mark Acreman asked council members for their approval of an addendum to a contract with Thompson Engineering for the redesign of the Highway 59 bridge plans.

Acreman said when the city initially bid the project, the only bid received was from Thompson and was slightly more than $1 million. Through negotiation with Thompson, the amount had been lowered to $970,000.

Acreman said his department had hoped the inspection services being performed by Thompson would have underrun to offset the additional design fees, but added an increase in the contract amount for $13,580 helped lower costs overall.

“These additional services allowed us to shave $100,000 off of the bid amount,” Acreman said.

The bridge is located on Highway 59 near the Original Oyster House. While the bid amount is for the entire project, only the east side is currently undergoing construction changes.

Acreman added that while they were discussing bridges, he felt it necessary to bring up that Alabama Department of Transportation mandated bridge inspections would be coming soon.

“Every two years we have to do bridge inspections,” Acreman said. “Included in this year, we are due for the underwater inspection on the Plash Island bridge, but that’s only every four years we have to do that.”

County Road 6 Improvements

Acreman told the council his department had been working with the planning commission to address ongoing traffic issues at County Road 6 and Highway 59.

“There’s some future developments coming in, and they’re going to need some major traffic infrastructure,” Acreman said. “They’re going to have to put it in in advance of that, and there’s some major traffic being generated just by the Sportsplex.”

Acreman said he had a proposal from Volkert and Associates to completely redo the intersection there.

For an amount not to exceed $98,140, Volkert would provide surveying, necessary permitting, engineering work and designing for the intersection.

The proposal would seek to widen County Road 6 West, which will create additional west bound and east bound lanes.

“Essentially what it does is create a right-turn only lane if you’re south bound off of County Road 6 west,” Acreman said. “It will put in a right turn deceleration lane if you’re south bound onto County Road 6 West on the north, as well as a merge lane for a period of time.”

Acreman said his department hopes the project will continue westbound until the money runs out.

The project also calls for the installment of new mast arm signals at the intersection that will feature new city signage.

Acreman said the proposal is included in this year’s budget and said ALDOT would pay for all fees associated with the signal and testing for the signal.