Robin's Blog for Dauphin Island

Message From Bill Harper

October 17, 2008

Dear friends,

I am always glad when October arrives for it brings some of the best weather of the year, plus the threat of storms greatly diminishes. But, we are still dealing with the aftermath of our back to back storms that traveled through our area in September, especially on the western end of the island.

There is good news from Mayor Jeff Collier. The Town has been successful in getting approval from FEMA and the Alabama Emergency Management Agency to return screened sand from the roads and right of way back to the shoreline on and through private property. As Jeff said, "common sense has prevailed". This action will hasten the return of vital services to approximately 200 houses on the far West End. For affected members, make sure you have signed a right-of-entry to your property so the contractors can move sand on and through your property.

Despite the slowest season of the year, DIPOA finances continue to be strong. Thanks to higher gas royalty payments and continued memberships dues coming in, we took in more than we paid out in September. I was pleasantly surprised for the golf course was pretty much out of action for half of the month, especially the Labor Day weekend. We have $1,007,156.86 banked, $304.00 more than last month, which was a record. My thanks to all our members who have sent in their dues. We are well ahead of last year and need only 200 more members paying dues to reach our goal of $120,000 this fiscal year. We will have one more mailing of dues notifications going out soon.

With the cooler weather coming we have plans to complete painting the Club building and to pave the main road and parking lot, plus some trails too. We are in need of volunteers to help with some of the painting work, starting in November. Contact our office at 251-861-2433 or email your interest to dipoa@skyynett.com . We will call you when a work-party day is planned.

On the legal front we expect a hearing at the Court of Federal Claims on the DIPOA/Corps of Engineers settlement probably in November, maybe December. In light of the Expert's Report, we are not optimistic that the judge will rule that we are due some relief due to the Corps dredging practices.

The West Surf Beach lawsuit trial date is set for December 15. In late September, and with Gustav and Ike leveling the berm on the beachfront, and with many houses on the West End standing in water pools, we approached the plaintiffs in this case asking them to drop the lawsuit or at least talk about a settlement, all for the good of the Island. They were not receptive, making the usual claim that the beach is building back; the usual assertion that DIPOA property should never be given away; and averring again that an engineered beach is obtainable without giving DIPOA property to the Town. They did say they would discuss a dismissal if we could guarantee funding would be available if DIPOA beach was given to the Town. Again, a handful of individuals have succeeded in blocking our effort to solve the problem of erosion eating into our south-side coastline.

As a side note to this issue, Jeff Collier and I met with Congressman Jo Bonner this past week to request his support for the appropriation for an engineering study of the East End now in a Senate version of Department of Commerce's 2008/09 budget appropriation. He said he would support it, if it goes to conference with the House, but warned that things are very complicated in Washington now. When told of the reluctance of the plaintiffs to dismiss the lawsuit unless there is a guarantee, he said, and I quote, "I cannot guarantee funding if the lawsuit is won, dropped, or settled, but I can guarantee that no public funding will be available unless there is reasonable public access on the West End."

At our last board meeting we discussed the need to restructure office space. With the golf course getting busier each year operating the course and DIPOA office out of the same location is getting more complicated. After the first of the new year, we are planning to reopen the POA office in the small annex attached to the Clubhouse building. It will be staffed a number of hours a day, and maybe four days a week to handle non-golf related DIPOA business. This will facilitate serving the other interests of our organization, including the architectural committee and membership outreach. It will involve increasing our staff one half-time equivalent.

Our next board meeting will be Saturday, November 8, 2008, at 10:AM in the Isle Dauphine Club, lower level.

If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to contact us. 251-861-2433 or dipoa@skyynett.com .

Best regards,

William (Bill) Harper