0517 islander

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR: Ongoing and Upcoming Events, PAGE 4

The Wharf Uncorked Food & Wine Festival

The Islander

INSIDE

MAY 17, 2017 | GulfCoastNewsToday.com |

PAGE 35

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Waves of Wine Festival crashes into Caribe in Orange Beach

Orange Beach snaps back at short snapper season By CRYSTAL COLE crystal@gulfcoastmedia.com

Orange Beach Elementary wins Safe School Initiative award Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall presented Orange Beach Elementary School in Orange Beach with the 2016 Attorney General’s Safe School Initiative Award of Excellence for Alabama State Board of Education District 1 Thursday, May 11. This is the fourth straight year that Orange Beach Elementary School has received the award. To find out more about this honor, turn to Page 34.

Hangout Festival this weekend Don’t forget to check out the annual Hangout Festival this weekend in Gulf Shores, as big names like Mumford and Sons, Chance the Rapper, Weezer and Twenty One Pilots head to our little stretch of beach. For a full lineup and schedule of events, head to the Hangout’s website. For street and beach closures in the surrounding areas, visit gulfcoastnewstoday. com for more information.

DEATHS

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John Edward Bonifay Elster E. Kimmel Stanley M. Krchak Phillip A. Lassitter Donald F. McLaughlin James Lee Miller Zoanne Elizabeth Hazen Perez Barbara K. Richmond

PHOTOS BY CAPT. MARK ROBINSON

The Orange Beach Wine Festival, dubbed the “Waves of Wine” event, was held last Saturday at Caribe in Orange Beach. Residents and tourists alike enjoyed several dozen wines, craft beer, food from several local restaurants, boat tours of the bay and three wonderful live musical acts. For more photos from this event, turn to Page 2 or visit our website at gulfcoastnewstoday.com.

Turquoise Place moves forward with parking fix

Orange Beach city leaders met earlier this week in a special-called meeting to send a message to the federal government this year’s shortest ever three-day federal red snapper season was untenable to Gulf Coast residents. Councilman Jeff Boyd told the packed council chambers the city had elected to pass a resolution to send a letter to the Secretary of Commerce and the administration expressing concerns about the incredibly shortened season created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to try to get some sort of immediate relief. “The Department of Commerce is over NOAA, and NOAA is over fisheries, so because of the urgency of the matter, this is what we’ve chosen to do,” Boyd said. Boyd read the letter during the meeting, where he asked the Commerce Secretary to extend the recreational federal season for another 46 days spread out over 13 three-day weekends. Boyd also mentioned the troubling economic impact the shortened season could have on the area. SEE SNAPPER, PAGE

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Tourism booming, room for more By CRYSTAL COLE crystal@gulfcoastmedia.com

GOOGLE EARTH RENDERING

A look from above at the proposed site of the parking lot PUD for Turquoise Place. In previous years, renters were parking directly across from the towers and crossing all five lanes of the beach road. By CRYSTAL COLE crystal@gulfcoastmedia.com

A proposed new parking lot for Turquoise Place Condominiums in Orange Beach garnered questions and concerns from the city’s Planning Commission members during its May 8 meeting. The proposed parking lot site, in the form of a planned unit development (PUD) is 625 feet

east of Turquoise Place and would consist of 132 spaces for overflow parking with a gated entrance for owners and guests. Staff said the applicants informed them a shuttle service would be provided to help get guests from the lot to Turquoise Place. Orange Beach Engineering and Environmental Services Director Kit Alexander told the commission city staff had been

working with Turquoise Place for three years on this issue that was a public safety concern. “Turquoise has been struggling with parking deficiencies for quite some time,” Alexander said. “We have had and observed life safety issues with people crossing Perdido Beach Boulevard at all times of the day and night. It is a very real SEE PARKING, PAGE

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The Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Vistors Bureau hosted a tourism summit last week saying 2016 had been a banner year for the area, with emphasis placed on ways to highlight some under appreciated tourist attractions. Chandra Wright, a nature tourism specialist with Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism, said the natural wonders of the area are an underutilized gem. “81 to 95 percent of our visitors are spending at least part of their time on the beach,” Wright said. “The percentage of guests who report spending time in our other nature activities, all of these other fantastic opportunities we have that’s usually less than 10 percent of our visitors. We can do better than that.” Wright said the area has more to offer than just its beautiful beaches. “Alabama as a state is amazing in terms of its biodiversity,” Wright said. “We rank fifth in numbers of SEE TOURISM, PAGE

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Gulf Coast Media

BALDWIN LIVING, 5-7

OUT & ABOUT, 24

CLASSIFIED, 8-9

PUZZLES, 10

HEALTH 22-23

SPORTS, 13-15

VOLUME 41 • ISSUE 21

LEGALS, 26-33

TV LISTINGS, 16-19

1 SECTION • 36 PAGES

OPINION, 11-12

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