Taxpayers beware – criminals continuing phone scam trickery, PAGE 47
City of Fairhope announces changes to recycling schedule
The Courier
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AUGUST 9, 2017 | GulfCoastNewsToday.com |
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New BRATS hub approved in Fairhope 30 Days 30 Drawings event to benefit St. Michael Catholic High School September 2017 will be an exciting month for those who have purchased tickets for the 30 Days 30 Drawings event to benefit St. Michael Catholic High School academic and extra-curricular activities. For more on this event, see page 3.
Solar Eclipse 2017 Viewing Program at Spanish Fort Public Library (SFPL) For the first time in 99 years, a total solar eclipse will occur across the entire continental United States, and Spanish Fort Public Library would like you to share this experience with us. SFPL will host a Solar Eclipse Viewing party, at the library, on Monday August 21, 2017 from 12 Noon to 3 p.m.For more on this event, see page 46.
DEATHS
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Anthony Edward Andres Sandra Lee Castner Ryan B. Hill Tami Kaye McClelland Carl Augustus Pinyerd III Leigh Price Robert Leslie Smith Rox Ann Owens Taylor Phyllis Sue Whitley Martha Sophia Olson Wigstrom
The proposed new BRATS hub will be located near the city’s parking garage, which city staff hopes will encourage more use of both the garage and public transportation.
Airport noise issues continue to cause controversy in Fairhope By CLIFF McCOLLUM cliff@gulfcoastmedia.com
A group of Fairhope residents have started a petition and Facebook group about continuing noise from the Fairhope airport. “The residents of Fairhope that live within the flight zone and beyond the H L Sonny Callahan Airport are very concerned about neighborhood safety, and insist that the FAA require pilots using the Airport to follow the federal regulations with regard to required minimum altitude,” the petition states. “For safety reasons, the law states that all aircraft must stay at least 1,000 ft. above residential neighborhoods except when necessary for takeoff and landing.” As of Monday morning, the petition had 119 supporters and the group’s Facebook page, Fairhope Citizens Against Airport Noise, had 95 members. The Facebook page has several videos posted that show planes flying near the airport that purport to show low flying aircraft, though several comments on the video question if the planes are landing or if the video has been zoomed in to make the aircraft appear closer
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than they actually are.
cliff@gulfcoastmedia.com
Fairhope is moving forward with a new BRATS hub near the city’s parking garage, a long-discussed plan that is now coming to fruition. Fairhope’s Economic and Community Development Director SherryLea Bloodworth Botop said a lot of factors have played into the project finally moving forward. “In meeting with the Bike and Pedestrian Committee, some of the feedback I got early on was that we had bike paths stopping in the middle of intersections and streets, which is certainly unsafe,” Botop said. “They started questioning me right away about when is this going
The question of airport noise has continued to divide the city for the last few months, after Fairhope Mayor Karin Wilson sent a to the commanding officer at NAS Whiting field about noise at the airport coming from military aircraft. In the letter dated June 15, Wilson informs Captain Todd Bahlau of numerous complaints from residents nearby to the airport “I wanted to write and formal request a public meeting between the Navy and the Fairhope citizens that are impacted by the military aircrafts (sic) in our community,” Wilson wrote. “I have received an excessive amount of complaints from area residents. The items of concern are aircrafts (sic) flying too low, continuous touch and go training, time of aircraft activity (as late as midnight) and overall frequency of aircrafts (sic) since last spring.” Wilson wrote the aircraft were impacting people’s decisions to to live in the city.
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to be finished and how are we going to get the bike paths completed, when we were going to get bike racks and that sort of thing.” Botop said she started to look at the best ways to try to make funding for those projects happen. “So, in doing that, serving on the Metropolitan Planning Organization board as the mayor’s proxy, one of the things I realized is that you could get funding for bike paths and walking paths within a half mile walking distance from a BRATS stop and three miles for biking,” Botop said. “We kind of started working backwards and worked with the MPO to get the GIS mapping of all SEE BRATS, PAGE
By CLIFF McCOLLUM The full text of former City of Fairhope Community Affairs Director Sherry Sullivan’s notice of claim, filed May 25 with the city, has been given to The Courier. The claim alleges wrongful termination, fraud, defamation and a number of other alleged actions taken against Sullivan by Fairhope Mayor Karin Wilson. The Courier had previously submitted a public records request with the city asking for the Sullivan document, but was turned down because it was “confidential or otherwise exempt from disclosure under Alabama law,” according to the city. The Courier recently was given a copy of the full claim from a confidential source. Its seven pages, written by Sullivan’s attorney Warren Harbison, lay out Sullivan’s claims of wrongful termination and defamation.
The claim “Ms. Sullivan was an extremely dedicated employee of the City of Fairhope for in excess of sixteen years, who had never been written up, received any disciplinary actions, or received any negative performance evalu-
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ations, prior to being wrongfully terminated by Mayor Karin Wilson,” Harbison wrote. “My client’s claims arise from her employment relationship with the City of Fairhope, her dealings with Mayor Karin Wilson, the wrongful termination of Ms. Sullivan, and the continued efforts of Mayor Karin Wilson to sully the good name of Ms. Sullivan.” Harbison wrote that Sullivan is making multiple claims including wrongful termination, retaliatory discharge, discrimination, fraud, fraudulent inducement, promissory estoppel, equitable estoppel, refusal to participate in criminal activity, defamation, libel, slander, breach of contract and other potential counts that could be brought against the city or Wilson. “The termination of Ms. Sullivan was an act of retaliation because Mayor Wilson believed that my client, Ms. Sullivan, had told the City Council of a potentially criminal act committed by the Mayor,” Harbison wrote. “Specifically, the Mayor believed that Ms. Sullivan had informed the City Council that the Mayor, Karin Wilson, physically asSEE MAYOR, PAGE
Gulf Coast Media
BALDWIN LIVING, 8-10
OUT & ABOUT, 20
CLASSIFIED, 12-13
PUZZLES, 11
HEALTH, 16-19
SPORTS, 25-27
VOLUME 124 • ISSUE 2
LEGALS, 30-45
TV LISTINGS, 21-24
1 SECTION • 48 PAGES
OPINION, 14-15
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Wrongful termination, defamation, fraud claims made against Fairhope mayor cliff@gulfcoastmedia.com
Military aircraft noise and mayoral response
SEE AIRPORT, PAGE
By CLIFF McCOLLUM
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