0510 islander

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR: Ongoing and Upcoming Events, PAGE 4

Original Oyster House Hosts Job Fair

The Islander

INSIDE

MAY 10, 2017 | GulfCoastNewsToday.com |

75¢

New Gulf Shores coffee shop brings local flavor

Neighborhood nuisance takes center stage in Gulf Shores

By CRYSTAL COLE

Brett/Robinson names March 2017 Employee of the Month The Brett/Robinson March 2017 Employee of the Month was awarded to Shauna Howell for her outstanding contributions, dedication and effort to Brett/Robinson Gulf Corporation. Other employees were recognized with “Team Player” awards for their leadership skills. To see who won this month, turn to Page 5.

Orange Beach officials concerned about possible new Dollar General Orange Beach city officials raised concerns at their last committee of the whole meeting about a potential new Dollar General that could be built on 161. The request from The Broadway Group would allow for conditional use approval to construct a 10,640 square foot Dollar General store at 4225 Orange Beach Boulevard, near Rose Lane. This would be the fourth Dollar General in the city of Orange Beach. To find out more about this situation, turn to Page 3.

DEATHS

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Sara Capell Andrews Paxton Holt Jordan Sr. Frances Linda Richmond Earl Wolf Rosenfeldt Edward Charles Sofsky Gerald Anthony Totoritis

crystal@gulfcoastmedia.com

A Gulf Shores grad has returned to the gulf coast and is serving up java with style at her coffee shop, Foam. Saidy Stoddard is a local native who graduated from Gulf Shores and went to college in Chicago, but wanted to do something different for her home town. She said the idea for the coffee shop came to her because she wanted to make a change here and saw there was a need for a place like Foam. “When I lived in Chicago, I lived across the street from Intelligensia, which is the coffee company we’re using to supply our coffee here,” Stoddard said. “When I moved back home, there was nowhere to get a good cup of coffee, so I saw there was a demand for it.” Stoddard said it took some time for her to find the right location that was exactly what she wanted, somewhere that would be a haven for local residents. “We looked around a little bit and thought about a place near the beach, but we wanted it to be a place where locals could come,” Stoddard said. “I feel like there aren’t very many places around here where locals can get together and just sit and talk and do stuff like this.” The shop has a sleek, minimalistic feel that stands out from a lot of the places in this area. “We spent a lot of time in California and in Costa SEE COFFEE, PAGE 2

By CRYSTAL COLE crystal@gulfcoastmedia.com

PHOTO CREDIT: PHOTOS BY CRYSTAL COLE/ ISLANDER EDITOR

Foam, located just a couple doors down from Rum Sisters, serves hot and cold coffee, teas and some food options as well as having a having a small retail shop inside.

Olympian makes waves in Gulf Shores By CRYSTAL COLE

crystal@gulfcoastmedia.com

Five-time Olympian and four-time beach volleyball medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings visited the Gulf Coast during this weekend’s NCAA beach volleyball championship tournament. The Olympian was in town to promote beach volleyball and celebrate growing the game. We got a chance to catch up with the celebrated athlete and our interview with her is below.

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cation is key.

Are you amazed how fast a sport like beach volleyball has grown? WJ: Part of me is amazed that it has been incorporated so quickly, but the other part of me says ‘No, our sport deserves this.’ It’s such a high demand, and we’ve had big, huge people behind it to make this push, so it makes sense to me. To see it as a reality is a really great thing.

How do you adapt to the wind?

How jealous are you they didn’t have this when you were coming up?

WJ: I always call it small ball. You want to stay close to your partner, you want to bring everything down a bit. If you do sky balls, the wind is going to take it away into the ocean, so you’ve just got to play small ball. Communi-

WJ: (laughs) You know, it makes me so proud this is here. I don’t know that I was ready for beach volleyball during my university days. Obviously, it’s so different now a days, and I’m so grateful this is part of the pro-

gramming. The opportunities for the girls are just endless now. I don’t know if I was tough enough to play beach volleyball then.

What makes Gulf Shores stand out from other potential host cities? WJ: I think if you look around, you see why we’re here. It’s just so beautiful.

Several homeowners in Gulf Shores came to a recent council work session to complain about a neighbor who may be operating businesses illegally out of his home. A representative for the Gulf Pines neighborhood said the situation had been going on for at least two years now at a residence on East 23rd Avenue where the resident has allegedly been operating at least six businesses out of his home. “Over the past two years, we have sent numerous emails to the city, starting Oct. 19, 2015,” the representative said. “During that time, we know that six citations have been issued to the gentleman that is running these businesses and, to the best of our knowledge, he was placed on probation. And, yet, here it is two years later, and the businesses are still up and running and being heavily advertised on buy/ sell/trade sites.” The representative said each letter to the city contained the laws they felt were being broken with these businesses. “Long story short, we’ve got a wood recycle business, automobile and motorcycle sales, stump grinding, pressure washing, tractor works and we’ve got a junkyard by the very definition in the Gulf Shores city ordinance to a T,” the representative said. “What’s really concerning to me is that in these businesses, I doubt very seriously that he has a business license for nary a one of the six businesses.” The representative said the resident dumps his wood recycle waste in front of the home. “He leaves wood recycle waste out in front of the house for the city of Gulf Shores to pick up on the taxpayers’ dime,” the representative said. “If you’re running any other business, you’d have to get Allied Waste or Waste Management to deal with that kind of waste, but I believe the encroachment of city property has been addressed.” He also accused the resident of spreading Roundup inside the city easement, which has caused the grass to die and erosion to occur on the city property. He added the resident had built fencing along the property using steel siding and other materials, calling it an “absolute eyesore.”

SEE WAVES, PAGE 2

INDE X

SEE NUISANCE, PAGE 2

Gulf Coast Media

BALDWIN LIVING, 6-7

OUT & ABOUT, 25

CLASSIFIED, 8-9

PUZZLES, 10

HEALTH, 25-28

SPORTS, 13-15

VOLUME 41 • ISSUE 20

LEGALS, 29-34

TV LISTINGS, 21-24

1 SECTION • 40 PAGES

OPINION, 11-12

ART IN THE PARK, 16-20


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