Flotte’s Notes on
Mobile, Alabama
An Unofficial Encyclopaedia
of Mobile & Baldwin Counties
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·
As
of July 2007, the City of Mobile had a population of 191,411
o That figure represents a loss of more
than 7,400 since 2000. Mayor Sam Jones said the loss was due to movement into
Mobile and Baldwin counties.
o Mobile gained an estimated 1,435
residents annexation in 2007, which would show an increase to 192,846.
o Baldwin County has grown by more than
30,000 residents since 2000, according the U.S. Census Bureau. From 2000 to
2007, Baldwin led the nation in growth among micropolitan
statistical areas.
o Recent numbers indicate that boom may
be slowing, with Baldwin's population increasing only 3,500 from 2006 to 2007.
Its population is 171,769, as of July 1, 2007, according to a census estimate.
o Mobile County has seen modest
population gains since 2000, from 399,843 to 404,486.
·
As of the 2005 the Mobile metropolitan statistical area
(MSA) had a population of approximately 401,427, and the Mobile-Baldwin
combined statistical area (CSA) a population of 564,013. It
is the 70th largest MSA in the nation
o The Mobile MSA population grew by
13.3% between 1990 and 2000.
o From 2000 to 2006, Mobile County's
population increased by 1.1 percent and Baldwin's increased by 20.5 percent.
·
The racial makeup of the city is 50% White, 46% Black,
1.5% Asian, and 1.4% Hispanic.
·
The median age is 34 years.
·
For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 83
males.
·
The median income for a household in the city is $31,445,
and the median income for a family is $39,752. The per capita income is
$18,072.
·
21% of the population is below the poverty line
·
Mobile Government
·
The elected government of
·
Municipal Elections are held every 4 years, and are
non-partisan. The last elections were held on September 13, 2005.
·
The
city of
·
Mobile City Council
District Map
·
City Of
Mobile Organizational Chart
·
City Council
Meetings Schedule, Minutes, Agenda
o
Mayor: Sam Jones (2005-present)
City Council
District 1: Fred
Richardson (1997-present) (Vice-President)
City Council
District 2: William
Carroll William Carroll (2005-present)
City Council
District 3: Clinton
Johnson (1985-present)
City Council
District 4: John
Williams (2007-present)
City Council
District 5: Reggie
Copeland (1985-present) (President 2001-)
City Council District
6: Connie
Hudson (2001-present)
City Council
District 7: Gina
Gregory (2005-present)
·
Councilman Fred Richardson created a controversy when he
wrote a letter on city stationary asking the school board to reinstate a Murphy
High student who had been expelled for videoing the assault of a Murphy teacher
Budget
·
Revenues
stagnated from 1999 through 2003. - Jeff
Amy, PR 6/13/2007
·
Mayor
Sam Jones’ top staffers are warning that slower revenue growth and obligations
to pay industrial development subsidies signal that city spending could tighten
in 2007-08.
·
This
year, city collections are about 2.6 percent ahead of budget. But sales taxes,
the top revenue source, are running 5.8 percent or $3.2 million below
projections. City business license revenue is more than making up for lagging
sales taxes at $3.2 million ahead of projections. Business owners pay license tax
based on their revenue, and big revenues for local
businesses last year meant big license tax collections this year. That raises
the possibility that license collections, the city's second-largest source of
revenue, will level off or decrease next year, just as sales taxes have done
this year. Through the end of April, the city had spent or pledged $110.6
million from its general fund, almost $5 million below
what it had budgeted to spend so far. City operations that are separate from
the general fund also were further ahead financially than projected.
·
The
city has promised $2 million a year for five years to Northrop Grumman and EADS
if they build a military tanker airplane assembly plant at Brookley
Field.
·
The
city plans to sell bonds to pay for the $33.5 million it has promised to
ThyssenKrupp AG. – PR 5/27/07
o Figures released by the city of
o Mobile Mayor Sam Jones wrote to the
City Council that the plant would create an additional $50.2 million in city
sales tax revenue over 20 years, citing numbers from the Alabama Development
Office, $2 million less than the cost of the debt.
o Originally, the state asked the city
to chip in $10 million, and that was raised to $20 million weeks before the
announcement. Connie Hudson said Gov. Bob Riley asked the city to increase its
contribution from $20 million to $33.5 million at a meeting four days before
the announcement.
·
In
2006, a $650,000 mid-year increase for the Wave bus system was controversial.
Jones is likely to ask the council to replace current manager First Transit
with a new private management company, McDonald Transit.
·
The
City Council passed a $242 million budget for FY 2008
·
Moody's
recently increased the city's credit rating from A2 to A1, and Standard &
Poor's increased its rating from A+ to A-. The ratings are for both the city's
current $185 million debt and the $56 million bond issue the city plans to to finance its contribution to the ThyssenKrupp AG steel
mill.
o Both agencies cited the city's growing
reserve fund, which has about $18 million -- or about 10 percent of the city's
annual budget -- in it. City Finance Director Barbara Malkove
said the city wants to increase the reserve to have about 17 percent of the
budget, or enough to run the government for two months if disaster strikes and
revenue disappears.
·
Mobile
will issue $97 million in bonds to refinance $80 million of existing debt and
pay $13 million for new projects, such as renovations to Ladd-Peebles Stadium
and the Alabama Cruise Terminal. – PR 7/19/08
o City bond adviser Louis Cardinal said
he wanted to price the bonds because he believes the city can get the best deal
in interest rates now because of a turbulent stock market and a dearth of other
Alabama bond issues. Mayor Sam Jones also said he wanted to sell the bonds
before Aug. 1, when Jefferson County was expected to make an announcement on
its debt problems.
Mobile Annexation
·
Efforts
to expand the city west of Cody Road have failed repeatedly over the last 20
years
o Voters in an area north of Airport,
which included Mobile Terrace, rejected annexation by one vote in 2002. Voters
in an area south of Airport that straddled
o Mayor Sam Jones' attempt in 2007 to
have the Mobile Regional Airport brought into the city limits by state
legislative action also failed. The two
·
There
were four elections in September 2007 for annexation in an area roughly bounded
by
o Voters in Section “A”, Mobile Terrace
and surrounding areas, voted "yes" to joining the city of
o Opponents, organized as the Committee
of Citizens Against Annexation, said they thought the
overall margin 61.7 percent of voters in the four areas combined voted against
joining the city -- showed that people west of Cody Road reject city taxes and
regulations.
o Annexation supporters formed the
Mobile Area Citizens PAC. MACPAC
Host Committee
o The city will use a law that offers at
least five years without city property taxes to those who annex in, and would
reduce business license taxes during that period.
o City sales tax will increase
immediately from 7.5 to 9 percent. Based on 2006 numbers, the city projected
that it would collect another $10.1 million in sales tax revenue from the area
each year.
o Newly annexed property owners will
begin paying, with no five-year delay, a school property tax that is assessed
in
o Mobile County Circuit Judge Rick Stout
dismissed a lawsuit by the the Committee of Citizens Against Annexation over alleged voting irregularities and claims
that the city’s annexation lines creating unincorporated islands were illegal. The
plaintiffs appealed and are waiting to see if Alabama Supreme Court justices
will hear the case. – PR 9/29/07,11/3/07, 8/24/08
o Mobile subsequently annexed the
o The annexation pushes the city's 5-mile
planning jurisdiction as far west as
·
Mobile
Mayor Sam Jones announced plans to set up early October 2008 annexation votes
in four areas: a section of Theodore and Tillman's Corner, a subdivision and
commercial stretch along Moffett Road, two subdivisions along Snow Road, and
the Windmill Place subdivision just west of Cody Road. – PR 8/16/08
o The Moffett Road annexation area,
which includes the area Wal-Mart, is angering some in Semmes, where several
people have been working to incorporate the community.
o In order to hold an incorporation
vote, residents must gather the signatures of 15 percent of voters in the
proposed area and owners of 60 percent of the land. The petition also must
include four voters living on every 40 acres in the city. The petition must be
submitted to the Mobile County probate judge, who would then set a date for a
referendum.
o The annexation areas were also
criticized by Mobile County Commissioners Stephen Nodine
and Mike Dean.
o Mobile Proposed
Annexation Map 8/08
·
Mobile Housing Board Website
·
Incorporated
in 1937, the Mobile Housing Board (MHB) has a five member governing Board of
Commissioners
who are appointed to five year terms by the Mayor.
·
The
majority of funding for the MHB is provided by the federal government though
the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
·
Through
the traditional Public Housing and Section 8 Housing Programs they provide
housing or housing assistance to over 7,000 families.
·
Renovations
include a HOPE VI grant to establish an assisted living facility at our Central
Plaza Towers
Development.
·
The
Mobile Housing Board works in collaboration with the City of
Mobile Homeless
·
·
15
Place at the corner of N. Joachim and St. Francis streets care for the homeless
during the day. The facility first opened in 2000 with an effort by the
Homeless Coalition backed by then-Mayor Mike Dow who signed on to the Plan to
End Chronic Homelessness. Seven agencies collaborated to form 15 Place. – Kevin
Lee, Lagniappe, 5/6/08
Transportation
·
Baylinc
is a cross-bay bus service Mondays through Fridays that includes several stops
along the Eastern Shore, then two stops each morning and afternoon at Mobile's
Bienville Square..
Mobile Education
Mobile Education
History
·
Before
1826 several private schools were operating in Mobile
·
1826 The first public school system in
Alabama was established in Mobile. The Alabama Legislature enacted a bill
drafted by Mobile’s representative, Willoughby
Barton, establishing a board of Mobile
School Commissioners.
·
1836 Barton Academy is constructed on Government Street
as a public free school. The construction was funded by private donations, a
city loan, a state-approved lottery, and the school commissioners’ fund and
loans. Financial problems forced the school to close several years later and
funds were channeled into church schools.
·
1838 A Catholic orphanage and two Catholic
schools, one for boys and one for girls, are established. By 1844, Catholic
schools are providing instruction to 90 orphans in addition to 60 girls and 40
boys.
·
1842 Methodists, in cooperation with the Unitarians, opened
the first Protestant free school in Mobile, Methodist Free School. This is followed by the Presbyterian Bethel
School and Episcopal schools
·
1846 The Alabama Legislature passed legislation permitting
taxpayers to redirect their school taxes to the church schools
·
1853 Alabama enacts anti-Catholic
legislation directed at the Mobile County school system which prohibits the
diversion of Mobile County public school funds to any school “that is not
strictly common to all children of the county, or to any that is under
sectarian influence or control.”
·
Sources:
Amicus curiae, Locke v.
Davey (2003)
Mobile County
Public School System
·
Public schools in Mobile are operated by the Mobile County Public School System.
o
Mobile
County School Board Members
·
The
Mobile County Public School System moved out of Barton
Academy
into the former QMS campus off Schillinger Road
·
In
2001, MCPSS was so troubled that it was scheduled to be taken over by the
state. Voters hadn’t approved new funding for the district in 41 years.
Business leaders joined civic leaders to push for a new property tax to fund
the schools: 10,000 people turned out to rally before the vote and the funding
passed. - “Good Schools Can
Happen,” Parade Magazine, 8/27/06
·
Saraland
voted in 2006 to break off from the Mobile County Public School System, the
first city in the system to ever do so.
·
Roy
Nichols became superintendent of the
o
The
School Board voted not to renew Superintendent Harold Dodge’s contract in 2007.
·
Mobile
County schools began random drug testing for students in 2007. Students who
participate in extra-curricular activities will be placed in a pool with
students who drive to school and with students whose parents volunteer them for
testing. An estimated 10 percent of the students from that pool will be asked
to submit urine tests each year.
·
The Mobile Area
Education Foundation was founded in 1992 by Carolyn Akers
as "Mobile 2000".
o
The Partner
in Education Program in
MCPSS Performance
·
High
School Graduation Rates
·
According
to the Alabama Department of Education the 2008 graduation rate at all 13
Mobile County high schools is 87 percent, up from 84 percent the year before.
But Voices for Alabama's Children in Montgomery, which uses a nationally
recognized formula similar to what the state education department will use next
year, places the countywide average at 59 percent. – PR 10/20/08
o
For
the past couple of years, Alabama has used its own formula to calculate
graduation rates, resulting in a state average this year of 83 percent. But
beginning next year, Alabama and many other states will move to a formula
adopted by the National Governors Association, meaning the rates will drop as
much as 30 percentage points. That formula takes the number of students
graduating and divides that figure by the number of ninth-graders that entered
that school four years before. Schools will not get credit for students who
graduate in five years or who leave and get a GED.
o
Five
of Mobile County's 13 high schools — Baker, Blount, Bryant, LeFlore
and Murphy — did not meet state standards in 2008 because of low graduation
rates. The formula currently used by the Alabama Department of Education puts
those five schools' graduation rates at between 74 and 88 percent. The schools
that did not meet state standards because of graduation rate were not
necessarily the schools with the lowest rates.
B.C. Rain had the second-lowest rate in the county at 77 percent, but it
met the standard because it did not drop. Baker, Bryant, LeFlore
and Murphy had rates about 10 percentage points higher
than Rain's, but did not meet the standard because their numbers went down. The
federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to
have a graduation rate of at least 90 percent or show improvement from the
previous year to be in compliance.
·
In
2008 nine Mobile County schools did not meet state standards, including six
high schools (Baker, Blount, Bryant, LeFlore, Murphy
and Williamson) and 3 elementary schools (Hamilton, Orchard and Will). In 2008,
for the first time, all 21 of the system's middle schools met academic
standards, known as AYP or Adequate Yearly Progress.
o
Prichard's
Blount High School performed among the lowest in the state, as students'
overall reading scores on the Alabama High School Graduation Exam were low.
o
Mobile
County public schools not meeting state standards had risen from 12 in 2006 to
21 in 2007.
·
Four
Mobile County public schools must give students an opportunity to transfer to
better-performing schools under the federal No Child Left Behind
Act: Chastang, Denton and Mae Eanes
middle schools and Gilliard Elementary. That's down
from eight last year. Two years ago, 22, or nearly one-fourth, of Mobile
County's schools had to offer transfers. Although all four met state academic
and attendance standards for 2008, they will have to do so again in 2009 to
lift the transfer designation.
·
Mobile
County outperforms the state's other large school systems when it comes to how
black and white students, as well as poverty and non-poverty students, perform
on standardized tests, according to a new study by The Public Affairs Research
Council of Alabama, based on the 2007 Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test. –
PR 1/27/08
o
o
o
The
Alabama Department of Education uses a method approved by most other states in
accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act, which gives
Alabama schools credit for graduating 82 percent of their students. Other
studies have placed Alabama's graduation rate in the 50 to 60 percent
range. – PR 1/27/08
·
George
Hall Elementary in Mobile's Maysville area has captured a prestigious award
from the National Principals Leadership Institute in New York City.
·
The
three high schools that did not meet standards had graduation rates as follows:
B.C. Rain off Dauphin Island Parkway, 77 percent; Vigor in Prichard, 73
percent; and Williamson, near Mobile's Maysville community, 72 percent.
·
MCPSS Finances
·
The
system's budget is $712 million.
·
Mobile
County Public School System approved $35 million in budget cuts, which includes
the elimination of hundreds of teaching and other positions. The school system
has sent letters to about 1,200 employees telling them that they are being
transferred or fired. Officials said they hope to hire about half of them back.
o
Board
member Fleet Belle said he is concerned that the cuts didn't reach high
enough. Absent from the list were any of
the recently added $100,000-plus salaried assistant superintendents. Nichols
said he plans to cut the number of assistant superintendent spots from twelve
to ten. – PR 5/6/08
·
Officials
said the school system has been overspending for several years and that the
system has dipped too far into its state-required savings account to stay
afloat. That account is supposed to have about $40 million. Instead, it will
have about $7 million by the end of the fiscal year. School officials are also
expecting about $17 million worth of cuts from the state budget.
·
In
2008, the Mobile County School board required a session in which they were
instructed on the basics of reading financial statements.
·
Salaries of administrators in
·
The
school system owns 22,000 acres of "16th Section" land. – PR 4/7/08
o
In
the early 1800s, the state gave all county school systems every 16th section of
land.
o
The
system makes about $4 million a year off the land by selling timber and
granting leases for hunting, according to school officials.
o
Mobile
Area Education Foundation director Carolyn Akers has suggested that the School
System sell off some land or find other sources of revenue rather than make
teacher cuts as a result of the upcoming budget shortfall.
o
State
law prohibits the system from selling the historic
·
Wade
Perry, a director of the local Alabama Education Association teachers union,
has asked the school board to reduce the system's legal expenses, which total
about $700,000 a year. – PR 4/7/08
Mobile County Public High Schools
·
Murphy
High School was built in 1926 on 28 acres from the
Carlen Estates, to relieve overcrowding at
·
Alabama School of
Mathematics and Science
opened in 1991 and is operated by The State of Alabama.
o Alabama School of Mathematics and
Science was ranked
o The school takes in about 300 students
in grades 10 through 12 each year from across the state. The students live on
campus and take college-level courses. – PR 5/22/08
·
John L. LeFlore
High School was founded in 1968 as
o The
·
Vigor High School in
·
Blount High School, which has
about 1,000 students, moved to
o In 2006, eight
·
Baker High School in
·
B.C. Rain High School on
·
Williamson High School in
the Maysville Community in
·
Shaw
High School Shaw High was closed in 2008 by the school board.
o The school board voted in 2004 to
rezone Shaw's students to Blount High in
o It cost the system more than $30,000
per student to keep Shaw open for 2007-2008, which saw 10 students graduate.
o Nichols said he plans to come before
the board soon with a plan for Shaw, which was built in the 1960s and once
served more than 1,000 students. He said a committee is reviewing about a dozen
possibilities for the school, including returning it to a regular high school
with a zone; converting it into a magnet school; using it as an adult education
school; or establishing a new vocational-technical school. – PR 5/13/08
·
Magnet
Schools: Phillips Preparatory School, LeFlore
Preparatory Academy, Dunbar School of the Creative and Performing Arts (grades
4-8), Clark School of Mathematics, Science and Technology; Chickasaw School of
Mathematics, Science and Technology (K-3), Council Traditional School (K-5),
Old Shell Road School of the Creative and Performing Arts (K-3)
Private and
Parochial High Schools
·
McGill-Toolen Catholic High School came into existence in 1973 through
the merger of McGill Institute for Boys (founded in 1896) and 
o
McGill Institute was founded in 1896 by Arthur and Felix
McGill as a free school for boys. In 1928, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart
took over the administration and continue to serve on the faculty today. The
original McGill Institute building was located on
o
The
o
IN 2007 the school annouced it
had raised $10.3 million to renovate the campus, including a new science
building, and construction of a football stadium at the Archbishop Lipscomb
Sports Complex.
o
The Archdiocese of Mobile also has 11 elementary schools
and
·
UMS-Wright Preparatory School:
Colleges and Universities
·
2007 enrollment:
·
Spring Hill College was founded in 1830 by Bishop Michael Portier, and taken over by the Jesuits in 1847. It was
the first Catholic college in the South and the fifth oldest Catholic college
in the
·
University of Mobile was founded as
The
·
Fred Whiddon
came to
·
Whiddon,
while criticized in later years for micro-managing, has overseen the expansion
of the
·
In
1998, Gordon Moulton became the
·
The
USA Foundation which manages the
University's $318 million (2007) endowment has close to 50 percent of their
investments in timberland.
o In 1999, Don Langham
and the late Jack Brunson applied their names to the somewhat unsuccessful
lawsuit that sought to regain control of the assets of the USA Foundation. The
suit eventually led to more cooperation between the board of trustees, the
University's administration and the USA Foundation. Langham
has been synonomous with the union movement in
o A large part of the USA Foundation's
holdings comes from federal Medicaid funds received by the university hospitals
for treating large numbers of poor patients. More than $135 million in such
disproportionate share payments were transferred to the foundation by the
university starting in 1989. Frederick Whiddon,
o Since May 2000, the university has
built a new $15.4 million endowment under the direct control of its board of
trustees,
o Tensions have eased between the
managers of the Foundation, the University's administration and the
University's faculty.
o The USA Foundation acquired 529,000
acres of timber land from Kimberley-Clark in 1999. The USA Board of trustees
was at odds with the Foundation, arguing that borrowing $300 million and
putting up hard cash and others assets to cement the Kimberley-Clark deal would
tie up too much of the Foundation's discretionary income in timber investment.
·
The
editorial staff of The Vanguard ranked the 10 most powerful people at
·
USA
Brookley Center - Map
·
Bishop
State has been scrutinized by the two-year system, state auditors, the U.S.
Department of Education, the FBI and the Mobile County District Attorney's
Office, which has charged 27 people with stealing more than $200,000 most of it
financial aid. – PR 7/10/2007
·
The
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accrediting organization placed
·
Three
·
An
inquiry into the school by Alabama's two-year college system found violations
of federal and state financial aid policies, with aid going to ineligible
students and some recipients getting excess money. The inquiry also raised
questions about academics at
·
The
most outrageous was the case of Pearlie Mae French, the 77-year-old,
one-legged, multi-sport athlete.
·
The
Bishop State Community College Foundation, which has been criticized in
multiple two-year system reports and investigated by law enforcement, will be
shut down. – PR 9/28/07
o A report on
o Mobile County District Attorney John
Tyson Jr. has said he is investigating how the foundation used a $94,000
legislative grant it received in 2003 from Kennedy, who represents parts of
·
Yvonne
Kennedy served as president of the college from 1981 to 2007.
o
Yvonne
Kennedy retired as President in 2007. She will remain at Bishop State Community
College indefinitely after vacating the president's office to write a history
of Bishop State. She will become "president emeritus," a designation
giving her neither pay, according to Bradley Byrne, who has said that Kennedy
requested the title. At retirement, Kennedy will be eligible to collect a lump
sum of about $530,000 accumulated through the state's deferred retirement
option program and approximately $7,600 in monthly pension.
·
A
fired Bishop State Community College instructor, who documents show enrolled as
a student in classes that he taught, must be returned to his job with back-pay,
an arbitrator decided. Since the food service teacher, Henry Douglas,
had already received a letter of reprimand from Bishop State for enrolling in
the classes, the school's termination was an additional punishment for the same
situation and therefore unfair, the arbitrator found. Bradley Byrne, chancellor
of the Alabama Community College System, criticized the ruling, which he said
was the result of the state's Fair Dismissal Act, teacher tenure protections
and the Alabama Education Association. In February 2007, the Press-Register
reported that documents showed Douglas enrolled as a student in at least seven
classes he taught, receiving six grades of A and one B for those courses.
Kennedy's successor as president, James Lowe, had decided rather than being
suspended, Douglas and Packer should be fired.
Mobile Infrastucture
·
The
o
It is the world's largest forest products terminal and
first in nation for wood pulp export.
o
The
o
The
most frequent commodities transferring through are coal, aluminum, iron, steel,
lumber, wood pulp and chemicals.
o
In March 2006, the main containership loading crane was
struck by a ship, destroying it, costing the docks $4-6 million to replace.
o The main harbor is capable of a 45-ft.
draft and has a 1,000-ft. turning basin located on the
o
72
percent of exports originating in the
o 
The
o Mobile River width
may cause some difficulty for berthing/turning
the mega cruise ships over of 1,000
ft. in length, thus limiting the
class of vessel that may be
positioned in
·
The
Alabama State Docks are managed by the Alabama
State Port Authority.
o
For
the first two hundred years of its existence, the
·
The
Alabama Legislature authorized the building of the Alabama State Docks in 1923.
o
Until
that time, the port was a mixture of private and city owned docks.
Modernization was needed, and only the state had the necessary capital
available to do the job.
·
The
commission chose retired Alabama-native Major General William L. Sibert, recently retired from
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after completing the Pacific side of the
o
Sibert
took 548 acres of marsh with the original investment from the State of
·
The
·
The Alabama State Docks is
currently undergoing the largest expansion in its history by expanding its
container processing and storage facility and increasing container storage at
the docks by over 1,000%.
·
The
Choctaw Point Container Terminal is
a $300 million ship, rail, truck and air transportation facility under
construction that will create 1,700 permanent jobs.
o
Choctaw Point is a partnership between Alabama State
Docks and Mobile
Container Terminal LLC.
§ Mobile Container Terminal LLC is in
turn owned by APM Terminals, an A.P Moller-Maersk
Group subsidiary (80 percent), and Terminal Link, a division of CMA CGM (20
percent)
o Phase I of the new terminal is on
track to open in September 2008. Two $7.5 million container cranes arrived from
o
Terminal
officials have said that worldwide container volume is expected to double by
2017, causing carriers that traditionally use ports on the west and east coasts
to turn to Gulf ports like
o
The
55-foot deep basin is planned on the
o Zim Shipping Service, which connects the
Far East to
·
General
cargo operations cover almost two miles of waterfront and include 27 berths.
The newly paved 16-acre container yard is served by Docks operated,
rail-mounted, 45-ton lift capacity Paceco crane.
·
The
·
Located
on the turning
·
Coal
and iron ore are the primary tonnage at the Bulk Material Handling Plant. Other bulk ores include coke, gypsum,
and ilmenite. Ground storage capacity is nearly 1
million tons and covered storage space is available for more than 100,000 tons.
o The Alabama State Port Authority will
spend $4.5 million to expand its Bulk Material Handling Plant, allowing the
Southern Company to transfer more coal from rail cars to barges. Southern Co.
has agreed to a special fee on all the coal that the docks handles, with the
money going to pay for the new railcar dump, in part because the state docks
didn't have enough money in its own capital budget this year to cover the cost.
The project will add 3 million tons of transfer capacity to the bulk plant,
which is at the northern end of the main docks property on the
·
McDuffie
Coal Terminal, on
o The Alabama State Port Authority
approved more money for efforts to control the dust generated by McDuffie Coal
Terminal, which has for years sparked complaints from downtown residents.
McDuffie is about a mile from the
·
The
Terminal Railway (TASD) provides
switching services to industries located the Ports of Mobile and Chickasaw, the
Brookley Complex, and the Port Authority’s wharves
and terminals. The Terminal Railway provides switching services to five
Class 1 railroads at the Interchange Yard - Burlington Northern Santa
Fe/Alabama & Gulf Coast Railroad, Canadian National, CSX,
·
The
Port Authority is constructing a $115 million public Steel Terminal at
·
The
city of
·
Mobile' Cruise Terminal was built in 2004 for $20 million by
an affiliate of the Retirement Systems of Alabama – PR 10/3/07
o The terminal was projected to lose
money if the
o The terminal is free-standing entity,
but the city must cover all losses. The city is also scheduled to make a $16
million balloon payment in 2017, at the end of the loan.
o The city gets 60 percent of any
profits, with RSA getting 40 percent. The city's share of profits increases to
75 percent if a second ship is recruited.
o In 2006, the terminal brought in
$58,000 more than it spent, thanks to $850,000 in homeland security grants and
Hurricane Katrina reimbursements.
o Civic leaders continue to look to
Carnival Cruise Lines to substitute a larger ship for the Holiday, which began
sailing from
Airports
·
The
Mobile Airport Authority manages Brookley Field and the
Brookley
Field Industrial Complex /
·
In
1929, the city bought the property, creating Bates Field, the original
·
In
1938, the US Army Air Corp bought the airport property and built Brookley Field, employing 17,000 Mobilians
during World War II.
o In 1940, the War Department named the
base after Capt. Wendell H. Brookley, a test pilot
who had died in a plane crash
·
The
Air Force announced a phase-out of the base in 1964. The city of
·
In
2004 the authority adopted an overall Brookley makeover
plan, which calls for better infrastructure.
·
In
2007, EADS built an
Engineering Center of Excellence at Brookley, and
selected it for its site of production of the A330 aerial re-fueling tankers.
·
Much
of the 7,800-foot 18-36 north-south runway would disappear under the planned
aircraft plants for EADS/Northrop Grumman.
o While the overall effects
to airport traffic is expected to be minimal, the Coast Guard and other
military users could have to make changes in their training operations. The
Coast Guard Aviation Training Center at
o The strip was once closed, but was
reopened about 10 years ago after the authority won money to rehabilitate it.
o Brookley has about 89,000 takeoffs and
landings per year. Brookley can handle 220,000
takeoffs and landings without serious delays. That would only fall to 211,000
with one runway. The FAA's forecast calls for the number of operations at Brookley to rise to 100,000 over the long term. – PR 5/25/08
·
The
Highways
·
1957 I-10 is built.
·
The I-65 link across Mobile-Tensaw Delta was
completed in 1982
·
I-165 opened in 1994. I-210 was planned as a bypass of
·
The Bankhead Tunnel crosses the
·
The George Wallace Tunnel is a tunnel along I-10
that crosses beneath the
·
The Cochrane-Africatown USA Bridge carries US 90 and
Railroads
·
Five
Class 1 railroads serve
o
CSX
provides through service to
·
Hurricane
Katrina in 2005 damaged the CSX rail lines used by the Sunset Limited, which
ran from
Waterways
·
The
Tenn-Tom and Intracoastal Waterways access the
Infrastructure Projects
·
The
new
o
The
Montgomery-based firm W.S. Newell is doing the first stage, a $21 million
project to clear the path and build necessary drainage and bridges from the
Mississippi-Alabama state line to
o
The
Alabama Department of Transportation will bid out the $34 million second phase
of the project, to clear and pave the section of the road that will run east
from Glenwood to
o
The
final stage, priced at $17 million, is to pave the portion that's being cleared
now.
o
The
project should be finished by 2009, in time to connect with an extension of
o
The
Alabama Department of Transportation's said the new U.S. 98 will take at least
10,000 cars a day -- off Moffett. A highway department transportation plan says
the new U.S. 98 is expected to carry more than 27,000 cars a day by 2030.
o
The
construction’s runoff has endangered the water quality in
I-10
Wallace Tunnel Bypass
·
A
bypass of I-10 around the Wallace Tunnel has been planned. – PR
12/31/06
·
In
2005, the highway department estimated that a new bridge would cost between
$603 million and $660 million, depending on which route was chosen. Those figures
also include the cost of widening the Bayway. Now the
estimate is closer to $700 million
·
The
three principle proposals include a bridge over the
o
State
docks officials and the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce have asked the state
Department of Transportation to eliminate the southernmost of the three
proposed routes, which would affect operations at Atlantic Marine Holding Co.
and Bender Shipbuilding, and hasten the process of making its final choice. –
PR 6/25/08
o
State
highway department officials will ask the federal government to consider a
fourth option - the "northern route," would run along Interstates 65
and 165,
o
The
Federal Highway Administration still has to agree to allow the northern route
to be included in the draft environmental impact statement for the project. The
inclusion of the northern route will probably mean the impact statement will
take another year or two to complete. After it's finished, the highway
department will hold several public hearings before deciding which route to
choose. After a preferred route is selected, more studies must be done. And the
state does not have funding for the project.
·
The
increasingly organized debate over whether and where to build a bridge shows
how interest groups are becoming entrenched ahead of the release of an
environmental impact statement on the bridge by the Alabama Department of
Transportation.
o Local maritime interests and shipyards
have organized a lobbying group called Keep Mobile Moving and have hired a
traffic consultant to help push their fight against an Interstate 10 bridge
over the Mobile River.
·
The
new-bridge routes could cost shipyards anywhere from $40 million to $250
million a year in lost business, a highway department study released earlier
this year indicated. Some of those routes could put shipyards out of business
by placing pilings in the middle of their dry docks, while any route would have
restricted taller ships and oil rigs from traveling under it, the report said.
o The Transportation Coalition, led by
business, real estate and construction interests, argues that a bridge is vital
to economic growth, and that it's important for the Mobile area to work with
highway officials to increase the share of roadbuilding
money being spent in southwest
Public Transit
·
The
Wave Transit System is Mobile’s public transit system
o
It
is managed by McDonald Transit Associates
o
Moda
is the downtown trolley (now natural gas shuttle) – Teske, Lagniappe 7/14/09 – Moda
Map
Revised
8/17/08
Text
Copyright 2008
Disclaimer: These Notes are not
original. They are complied
from various sources, primarily the Press-Register (PR),
