The process of building and rebuilding on Dauphin Island continues but not without a good measure of debate and controversy.
Yesterday's Dauphin Island Property Owners' meeting was a good example of how uncertain things have become for Dauphin Island's west end. Here are some of the highlights:
West End Berm
Berm construction appears to be on track to begin in late December or early January. The deadline for completion has been extended to June 2007.
The berm will be build along the shoreline as it exists today. West end Dauphin Island vacation properties under water today will remain under water until or unless the beach is restored by some other process. The berm plans do not call for restoration of beach front properties. Where a vacation home sits partially in the water, the berm will be built immediately to the water side of the home's pilings.
West End Dauphin Island Public Beach
The debate between the grass roots organization Save our Shores and the Dauphin Island Property Owners' Association continued during yesterday's meeting. The matter in question is the interpretation of wording in the original deed to the west end Dauphin Island beach area. Save our Shores contends that the deed's wording prevents the Dauphin Island Property Owners' Association from turning over the west end Dauphin Island beach to the town for public use.
The Dauphin Island Property Owners' Association board has decided to submit the document for legal review because much of the property covered by the deed is currently under water, which they believe affects what they can do with the property.
In the meantime west end Dauphin Island vacation home reconstruction continues. Although there are fewer lots today on which some of these homes can be rebuilt, those that are rebuilding are doing so with updated construction codes. They're building higher and stronger than before.
Dauphin Islanders continue rebuilding
DAUPHIN ISLAND -- Workers hammered inside a newly erected house Friday on a stretch of this island's west end where nearly one year ago Hurricane Katrina swept away a 26-year-old home and left six crooked pilings jutting skyward.
"There was never a question of whether we'd rebuild," said Richard Paul, 42, the home's owner and a talk radio host in Birmingham. "That house was built just after Hurricane Frederic (in 1979), and considering the lax building standards then as opposed to the ones we have now, I figure this new one will last at least 25 years."
One year after Hurricane Katrina wiped out 300 homes on the island's west end, island rental property owners and real estate business people expressed confidence in the island's recovery. But they and other business owners on this barrier island of about 1,300 pre-storm residents said many problems remain.
They said recovery could forever change the island, a small town very different from the massive tourist magnet Gulf Shores across Mobile Bay.
"With insurance rates as high as they're getting, costs are going to get passed down, and the tourists will stop coming," said Lynn Wickman, who, with her husband Don, owns the island tourist shop Treasure Trove. "Small businesses on the coast like ours could become a thing of the past. Only companies with deep pockets will be able to afford it."
Since Katrina struck last Aug. 29 with a 15-foot storm surge, more than 50 homes have been rebuilt or have started reconstruction, said Joyce Allen, city building inspector. Most of the structures being rebuilt are rental homes, city officials said.
"We're recovering, and next year I feel like we'll continue to recover," said Beth Cox, owner of Boardwalk Realty. "Of course, we're all still concerned about the condition of the beaches, but we're moving ahead."
Most of the island's infrastructure has been rebuilt. Water and sewer service were returned within eight months of the storm, said Jeff Caldwell, manager of the Dauphin Island Water and Sewer Authority. The Federal Emergency Management Agency spent $833,740 to replace water lines and a pump station wiped out during the hurricane.
The town's utility system now has 1,880 customers, compared with 2,116 before Katrina, Caldwell said.
Because of land loss on the south side of the island's eroding far west end, the pipes and manholes serving about 20 lots remain underwater much of the time, Caldwell said. Service to those areas is capped for now, cutting off much possibility of rebuilding on most Gulf lots west of Shell Court, he said. Read more