Dateline Daphne: April 19^th 2010.

Some say there were 300, some say it was nearer 400.  Whatever the total the Daphne Council Chambers, previous highest attendance 6, were packed to overflowing with TimberCreek residents all keen to let the council members know their feelings about service roads and commercial developments in their neighborhood.

A simple, written report such as this can never portray the shear amount of energy that so many frustrated and potentially angry people can generate but they all sat respectfully through the early stages of the meeting and gave warm receptions to the presentations from the Optimists Club of Daphne and Huntington College.

During the public hearing we heard eloquent speeches from POA Chairman David Chalk and local resident Tom O’Hara and were treated to a very informative lesson on the fragility of the wetland ecosystem that resides either side of I-10 by Chester McConnell.  A copy of the article which formed the basis for the presentation can be downloaded here.  The photographs that accompanied Mr. McConnell’s talk really were superb – I wonder who took them… J

Time was of the essence as the Council had other business to attend to so Council President Gus Palumbo asked for the resolution to be read and a few seconds later all seven council members had said “Aye” and Daphne City support for the service road had been officially withdrawn.  Thank you all..!

Dateline Bay Minette: April 20^th 2010

The room was smaller, the crowd was smaller – “only” about 150 or so, but the atmosphere was just as charged as the Chairman of the Baldwin County Commissioners brought the meeting to order. 



Once again our issue was some way down the agenda but the residents of TimberCreek were in good humor after the victory 12 hours earlier and once again we respectfully sat through the councils deliberations and applauded warmly as the outstanding citizens and police officers of Baldwin County received their commendations.

I was on the agenda to speak during the public hearing so I must admit to being nervous and not hearing a word about the mosquito problem – sorry if you were the person presenting it; I’ll try to catch it on the re-runs on Mediacom channel 5.

Gus Palumbo was first to the podium and gave a well delivered speech explaining why Daphne City Council had felt the need to withdraw its support for the service road. The first of many standing ovations accompanied Mr. Palumbo back to his seat at the back of the room.

Tom O’Hara was next up and for the third or fourth time in the last few weeks gave a very well reasoned deliberation on the pros and cons of having a service road running through TimberCreek.  Cancel that, there are no “pros” it was all cons, but it wasn’t an overtly negative speech it was simply stating the facts as we know them and he too was rewarded with a standing ovation.

Chester McConnell gave an abridged performance of his environmental concerns which was once again accompanied by some wonderful photography (ahem).  We didn’t have the benefit of the big screen this time but he was partnered by your blog author holding up large poster prints of the photographs – strategically placed so the TV cameras couldn’t see my face.  I don’t need to mention (but will anyway) that Chester received a standing ovation.

Wendy Walters gave a short but passionate speech about how she had lived in the area for most of her life and had chosen TimberCreek over England and Dubai to settle with her new (extremely handsome!) British husband.   I doubt there was a mother in the room that didn’t have a tear in the corner of her eye when Mrs. Walters told the story of the young children riding their bikes safely along Green Court – a sight that would be cast into the history books if the service road were to be built. Standing ovation?  You bet.

I shook off my nerves to present the Commissioners with a petition signed by almost 300 people.  The petition had effectively only been in existence for 24 hours and I promised them 10 times that number if they would give me a few more days.   The chairman assured me that 300 would be just fine.  It was only a seated ovation this time but I don’t mind.

Ex-Baldwin Commissioner and current TimberCreek resident Jonathan Armstrong  reminded the incumbent commissioners that their duty was to listen to the residents and act in their best interest, oh, and by the way, did they remember it was an election year?  Guess what… standing ovation.

Commission hopeful Daniel Dyas  also spoke on behalf of the residents and POA lawyer James Pittman got the biggest laugh of the day when he asked if there were any Baldwin County residents in the room that were in favor of the service road.  Needless to say no one raised their hand but both speakers did get standing ovations.

Cal Markert (Baldwin County Engineer) had opened the proceedings on the I-10 Service road and now he nervously stood to “correct a few misconceptions”.  As the only person in the room who seemed to be fighting for the road I can only admire his bravery; oh, and his choice of footwear – he was wearing exactly the same shoes as I. For the first time during the public hearing the speaker sat down to total silence.

Joe Davis, former member of the POA then stood to correct a few of Mr. Markert’s misconceptions about the support the POA had offered at earlier meetings.  I didn’t notice Mr. Davis’ shoes but I’m sure they were as fine as his rebuttal to the County Engineer.  Joe got the final standing ovation of the day and I think we managed to tie the record set by Barak Obama during his State of the Union speech – the only difference being that ours were genuine and spontaneous.

After some discussion (and not a little political posturing I’m sure) amongst the commissioners Ed Bishop tabled the proposal that the project be cancelled and after some further clarification as to the lack of contingency between the service road and the Interchange projects the majority of the Commissioners voted “Aye” with only Commissioner Burt saying “Nay”

So, two battles won and with it the war.  Or so we thought.  There are rumors tonight that ALDOT will step in and demand the service road is built to connect to the Interchange but as of now we are getting mixed signals.  Hopefully there will be more concrete news tomorrow and with it no more concrete in our sub-division.