SPANISH FORT – A growing population and shrinking sales tax revenue are key issues facing Spanish Fort, candidates for mayor said during a recent forum.
Three of the four candidates for mayor took part in the forum sponsored by the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Aug. 4. Incumbent Mike McMillan and challengers Rebecca “Becky” Cornelius and Jeff Batley discussed issues in the conference held over Zoom.
Challenger David Westerfield did not take part in the meeting.
Municipal elections in Spanish Fort and other cities and towns in Baldwin County will be Aug. 25.
Batley said he decided to enter the race out of concern over how the community has changed since his family came there in the 1960s.
“Since we’ve incorporated, we’ve had a lot of business coming to town and it’s been great,” Batley said. “We’re rocking and rolling. I’m telling you, however, over time I have seen where we’ve almost outgrown ourselves on the western side, down toward the Causeway side, the Mobile end. And we’re at a point where, retail, we’re in a real rut. Look at the Eastern Shore Center and the Spanish Fort Town Center, for instance, two places I’ve spent a great deal of time investigating and they are both at the capacity of approximately 21 units that are empty.”
Cornelius said she and her late husband moved to Spanish Fort in 2002 and fell in love with the small-town feel of the community.
She said the city needs new leadership to keep that feeling.
“Spanish Fort has had a substantial growth over the years, and it needs new leadership,” Cornelius said. “My goal is to advocate for responsible growth while continuing to keep the family-friendly ideals that are important to me alive. I plan on having regular communication listening to all the citizens and their input on how we can improve the city of Spanish Fort and help serve this place better.”
McMillan stressed his experience and the accomplishments of the city during his administration and how Spanish Fort has dealt with reduced income during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our income at this point is down because of the pandemic, but under the watchful eye of this administration we have reduced our expenditures to offset the revenue declines,” McMillan said. “I am the only candidate that has proven to meet all these criteria, that has a sensible plan to handle growth, improve our quality of life and manage the merger with our volunteer fire department, that understands the three elements of government, which is health, safety and welfare of all within our city.”
Moderator Belinda Byrd Murphy asked candidates how they would deal with shrinking tax revenue caused by the pandemic and closings of stores in local malls.
Cornelius said cities and groups such as the chamber should work together to encourage commercial growth.
“COVID 19 has really hurt everybody in America and the world. But trying to organize both the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce plus Spanish Fort and all the cities around the Eastern Shore, we could all benefit by having people come over here to promote the businesses that we have here reap the benefits from the taxes that are spent here,” she said. “There are plenty of empty spaces in the Town Center, in the malls, but if we try to work together to have some kind of event to try to bring in people into the city, it would help all the residents and the citizens.”
Batley suggested the city consider converting some unused retail property into needed residential sites.
“How about taking our western edge of Spanish Fort, which would be the Spanish Fort Town Center, seeing as how we’re not getting retail in it, let’s fill that with multi-family dwellings, apartments in other words, high-scale ones, that are built with nice amenities and selling these units or renting them out, whatever a developer may choose in the ultimate plan working with our smart growth team as well as those who are in the know and have money to back it, we’ll build something that will bring more folks in and what will follow the people will be, right there,” Batley said,
McMillan said that while city tax revenue fell 6.9 percent during the pandemic, Spanish Fort cut spending 15 percent, enough to offset the loss. He said the city is not responsible for costs at the retail centers but has profited from sales and that he feels the stores will recover.
“I’m an optimist,” McMillan said. “I believe in the Town Center. I believe in the Eastern Shore Center. Economics will drive that. Do I feel that multifamily housing in those areas is right? No. I think we’ve got more than enough multi-family housing in our city. I believe that economics will drive it. Good things will happen within those areas.”
Another question dealt with the financial obligation for the city’s $24.7-million Causeway Master Plan.
McMillan said the city is seeking, and has started receiving, state and federal grant money to help pay for the project.
“The way you achieve the Causeway Master Plan is through grants,” McMillan said. “It’s through funding through the agencies, Forever Wild, state agencies, those kinds of things, that you have to reach out to. The city of Spanish Fort can’t afford a $24.7 million project along the Causeway. We can’t do that with an annual budget of $12 million realistically. So, the way you achieve that is through grants and we have received our first grant.”
Batley said he worried that grants would give state and federal governments control over the project and areas of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.
“With the state having such a big hand as well as dealing with the federal government, they have a couple of times made issue of wanting to take over the Delta,” Batley said. “I’d just as soon we keep it. It’s our lands around here as part of the character of Spanish Fort. Now, how to go and finance it, it’s fixing our tax problems here in Spanish Fort and we heavily invested in these town centers and with those being empty and our major revenue being the taxes I was speaking of earlier, we need a plan to turn that around. That would also give us money to take care of what’s happening on the Causeway.”
Cornelius said grants would be a good way to finance improvements needed to bring visitors to the area.
“Grants and the other programs would be a wonderful asset to the delta,” she said. “The delta is a tremendous asset to Spanish Fort and anything we can do to bring citizens to Spanish Fort or any other people to the beautiful area here would be beneficial and I would work with the city and ALDOT (Alabama Department of Transportation) to make that work.”
