On March 12 the Orange Beach “Scrapin the Coast” Car Show roared into Orange Beach, leaving a trail of traffic violations and noise complaints across the island.

During the March 16 City Council Meeting, Mayor Kennon said he has spoken with The Wharf management and they plan to sit down to discuss next year’s truck show in hopes of bringing some type of control to the event.

“We don’t want to stifle it to the point it dies but we do want to control it, so we don’t have some of the chaos we had this weekend. I do want to give fair warning. As a young juvenile delinquent, the old grumpy folks kept me in check, so it is now my time as an old grumpy folk to keep the young delinquents in check. We are going to start being very strict about these vehicles with these extremely loud mufflers. There is no excuse for me to have to listen to that as an old grumpy folk. I think most people that live here in town don’t want to hear it,” Kennon said.

Kennon went on to say that the city will also crack down on littering, squatted and elevated trucks with headlights that are too high and speeding.

“We have these issues year-round and we are going to start cracking down. The number of people in town has gotten huge and in the neighborhoods the speeding has gotten out of control. So, we are giving you warning. If you are speeding in a neighborhood, we are going to start writing real tickets not just warning tickets. We have got to slow folks down,” Kennon said.

The loud trucks also caused issues in Gulf Shores. During the March 15 City Council Meeting, Mayor Robert Craft said he received more texts and emails regarding this single incident than he has ever received.

“We beefed up our traffic unit and changed their hours and had them come out. We don’t have the numbers yet, but we know there were close to 100 traffic stops conducted by our officer over the course of the weekend,” said Deputy Chief of Police Daniel Netemeyer.

The participants of the Orange Beach car show bled into Gulf Shores playing loud music, revving engines and loud mufflers. Netemeyer said that violations decreased Sunday after a strong show of force Saturday.

According to a Facebook post on the Gulf Shores Police Department page, officers had 163 traffic stops, issued 82 citations, made 34 arrests and issued 30 parking tickets over the weekend.