PROCEEDINGS HELD BEFORE THE BALDWIN COUNTY COMMISSION
(Work Session)
Tuesday, January 22, 2008

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT :

Charles "Skip" Gruber
Frank Burt
Wayne Gruenloh
David Bishop

ALSO PRESENT:

Scott Barnett, Esquire
Michael Thompson, County Administrator
Virginia Bridges, Mobile Press Register
David Brewer, Assistant County Administrator

ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AGREEMENT FOR THE INTERSTATE 10 SERVICE ROAD PROJECT

MR. CAL MARKERT: All right. Next, Mr. Chairman, is the agreement with AL DOT the on 1-10 service road. And this is for one-point-five million. If you look at the agreement and the cover letter from the State, it's basically an agreement for one-point-five million for County road work -- road work in Baldwin County. This ties in with our project where we were trying to get the funding from Cypress Equities, Timber Creek, and Daphne. And this completes the project, more or less. Cypress Equities has turned in a draft agreement. Scott has corrected most everything, if not everything. In their agreement, they state they're committing half a million dollars. AL DOT commits one-point-five million dollars; Timer Creek, two million -- That's a total of four million -- Daphne, a million. That's a total of five million. And then we're constructing the east end -- can't read the letters on the map. We're constructing the east end, which covered, I think, a million and a half. We're doing the design, which covers another half million or so. And we're committing two and a half million from our budget. So we have all agreements in. We haven't discussed the AL DOT agreement yet, so I put it on the Work Session. At the next meeting, we'll have the agreement for Daphne, Cypress Equities, Timber Creek
 and AL DOT. I talked to the City of Daphne. They said they had -- did not have a problem maintaining their section of the road. When I talked to him, I was under  the impression that the east side was -- currently called Woodrow Lane -- was outside the city limits. And we tried -- You can't see it too good on the projector. But if you look at the -- If you look close, all the light pink or beige-colored area is Daphne. If you come below there, you see how it's kind of a greener shade. That's on the City. This is their limits. All this is Daphne. There is a strip right here that's not annexed. But that's in the State's -- inside the interstate's right-of-way system. So we'll do is we have to go back and get with Daphne. And we're going to ask them to maintain this hole section. We'll have this small piece that's not mnexed. And Spanish Fort has from here to here. Well, Spanish Fort has from here to that property line. The Cypress Equities --

MR. MICHAEL THOMPSON: That part that's not annexed there, is that where the tower is?

MR. CAL MARKERT: Yes, sir. There is a CID industrial -- What does that stand for, Scott?

MR. SCOTT BARNETT: Improvement district.

MR. CAL MARKERT: Improvement district. They own and maintain the section of the road where the physical Bass Pro Shop is, where that development is, that is. And that is a public-entity road that couldn't be closed. It would be just like us. We'd have to go through vacation procedures. So we have some surety that it will be open to the public, that kind of thing.

COMMISSIONER DAVID BISHOP: On the portion that the State -- the interchange and everything, do they -- do we know their schedule? I mean, we just started working. And they never do anything. We're going to be tied up with them not cleaning that loop maybe forever. Is that my bad thinking, or is that something you can get me a better view on?

MR. CAL MARKERT: Right now, their schedule is to let the project late this summer, and ours is the same. We're scheduled to have a public hearing for the interchange and the service road.

COMMISSIONER DAVID BISHOP: They're going to be working together?
 
MR. CAL MARKERT: Right. Our public hearing will be for our work and their work. We're having kind of a combined meeting. And late this summer is when we're scheduled for construction. And we want to let both projects at the same time.

CHAIRMAN FRANK BURT: Okay. Commissioner Gruenloh.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: First item, as far as the State's agreement, it's always been my understanding, Cal, was that the one-point-five was going to be needed as far as the work over on -- off of 1-10 and 90 and the entrance and everything else. And that's where we had been talking about spending it. Now we're saying it's going to be part of the service road. Does that mean that Cypress Equities is going to be handling everything over there as far as their entrance and the widening of the road over there and everything else?

MR. CAL MARKERT: Yes, sir. They're doing that through the State's permit. And I'm sure it will cost more than a million and a half. I feel confident. And they've decreased the amount they're putting on this section of the road, and they're increasing the amount they're putting on the end.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: So they understand that?

MR. CAL MARKERT: Yes, sir.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: And as far as the other parties to this 1-10 service road agreement, all those other parties are aware that they're spending money over there and that the one-point-five is coming over to the service road? Everyone understands that?

MR. CAL MARKERT: Yes, sir. I'm not -- I haven't talked specifically with Daphne about it, but I have talked to Timber Creek. And they understood. And they didn't mind.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: Okay.

COMMISSIONER DAVID BISHOP: That's where I thought the hang-up would be, with Timber Creek.

CHAIRMAN FRANK BURT: And AL DOT understands this too, don't they?

MR. CAL MARKERT: Right.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: Okay.

CHAIRMAN FRANK BURT: Okay. Any other comments?

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: Do we know the status with AL DOT as far as the 13 interchange and where they're at in that process?

MR. CAL MARKERT: At our last scheduled meeting, late part of this summer, we're wanting to let both projects. The interchange -- They've been working on the right-of-way on the south side of the interstate. The interchange is basically redesigned. We're just having to go through the federal process of doing environmental work. And that's what's slowing that down. So we're hoping late part of this summer to let both projects, the interchange and the south leg of 13.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: So right now they're in the process of right-of-way acquisition?

MR. CAL MARKERT: Yes, sir.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: Everything else's been done as far as public hearings and permits and things of that nature?

MR. CAL MARKERT: Well, they can add public hearing -- They had environmental work and federal approval on the old design of interchange. When the Feds said -- When we asked about the service road, the Feds said, you can do the service road, but you'll have to back up and amend your environmental document, which means, from the interstate north, you're going to have to stop working on right-of-way. They allowed them to keep going from the interstate south. They allowed that to stand, so they didn't stop them from working on the right-of-way.

CHAIRMAN FRANK BURT: Any other comments or questions? This will be on the agenda for --

MR. CAL MARKERT: Yes, sir.

CHAIRMAN FRANK BURT: Commissioner Gruenloh.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: One last question. It doesn't deal with the service road. What is that one green -- The green is the County; right?

MR. CAL MARKERT: Right.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: What's the one green piece up there away from everything else, in Spanish Fort's area?

MR. CAL MARKERT: I'm not sure. That's just a tract of land that somebody didn't agree to annex into the City. There is no roads in it.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: Do you know what that is, Ed?

COMMISSIONER DAVID BISHOP: No, I don't. It's right there behind those churches maybe.

MR. MICHAEL THOMPSON: It would be back behind the Presbyterian church. The Presbyterian church sits right here. It's back behind it.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: Sorry, Mr. Chairman. That kind of caught my eye.

MR. CAL MARKERT: So we'll have the AL DOT, the Cypress Equities agreement, Daphne's agreement, and Timber Creek's agreement on the agenda Tuesday.

MR. SCOTT BARNETT: Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, at this point, I haven't -- I'm anticipating the same thing: I'm anticipating Cypress agreeing with the final layout of the document that Cal and I have been looking at. I'm anticipating no changes to the Daphne or the Timber Creek document with the exception of any Potential changes Cal may want concerning maintenance. I've seen the service -- the letters of credit that the -- at the least the draft version -- that timber Creek has submitted. The escrow agreement from Cypress Equities they're wanting as part of their agreement, I have yet to see it. I anticipate them sending it to us quickly and it being a quick review. So the only document at this very point that I haven't set eyes on is the escrow agreement from Cypress, but I expect that to be something they could send to us quickly. And, of course, sometime between now and Tuesday, I'm hoping that Cypress will say thumbs up on this agreement. So, bottom line, everything could be ready, like Cal's indicated. And the only thing that could potentially be a hold up is this escrow agreement from Cypress. But I'm optimistic about that.

CHAIRMAN FRANK BURT: Okay. Very good