There is a story in today's Mobile Register about the deed conundrum the Dauphin Island Property Owners' Association is wrestling with.
There isn't anything new in the story except the fact that the Dauphin Island's problems and its own residents' conflicting ideas about how to deal with them are garnering plenty of publicity.
That's sure to help solve the situation.
Island plans stalled by deed restriction
Rivals on Dauphin Island -- one group seeking to invite high-end development of the island's golf course, the other group working to hand over west end beach land to the public -- have been stymied by the wording of each property's 50-year-old deed.
"Neither group looked at the deeds till now. I'm sure we all wish we'd done this a long time ago," said John Reed, board president of the Dauphin Island Property Owners Association.
The group owns both the 166-acre Isle Dauphine Golf Club and 3½ miles of beach that stretch in front of Gulf-front homes on the island's narrow west end.
Unless the deeds can somehow be changed, the association may be left with a sparsely used golf course that struggles to pay for itself and a private beach that is shrinking.
Since Hurricane Katrina left most of the association's west end beach parcel underwater, Reed has led an effort to transfer the land to the town of Dauphin Island, Mobile County or some other public entity that could secure federal funds for beach restoration. The private beach is ineligible for public restoration money.
Those efforts stalled last week, when association lawyer Bob Laurendine delivered news to Reed and the board that the covenants placed on both the beach and the golf course apparently prevent them from being sold, leased or transferred -- period.
Reed said he will continue to seek legal advice to find a way around the problem.
"We were trying to do the right thing before this, and we'll continue to try to do the right thing," he said.
The news was a surprise to opponents of the board's efforts to make the west end beach public, including former association board president B.J. Lyon. Lyon had called it a "giveaway" of valuable association property.
"This frustrates both sides. It's really the lightbulb coming on after 50 years," Lyon said.