ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Hoping to make Orange Beach a better place to live, residents have readily jumped to work on Mayor Tony Kennon’s newest strategy: the Citizen Advisory Committee.

A crowded room of willing residents filled the Orange Beach Council Chambers Tuesday evening to lend a hand and build the community to become a thriving city not just for tourists but for the people who live here.

As one of Kennon’s campaign promises coming to fruition, the committee is another step toward opening the lines of communication between the city and its residents.

“This is an evolution,” Kennon told the crowd. “I want this to be different from just having advisory committees that meet for the sake of meeting.”

Kennon invited the new members to present the city with anything and everything that is of concern to the residents.

“What I want to see is a lot of dialogue and a lot of frank discussion between the citizens and our staff, but it has got to be constructive,” Kennon said.

City Administrator Ken Grimes introduced the committee as the gateway to the transparency desired with city government.

“The number one thing we want to do is disseminate information,” Grimes said. “You want to disseminate appropriate and factual information.

“You’re the eyes and ears of the community,” he told the committee. “There are issues out there.”

Grimes said the second goal is to dispel rumors. The committee, broken down into subgroups, will have volunteers working with six subjects: administration, ordinance and policy review; community development; public safety; parks and recreation; transportation, engineering, public works and utilities; and Backcountry Trail.

With only one Ono Island resident in attendance, an obvious effort within the advisory committee is to form a relationship with the gated community.

“We are all trying to tear down that wall between us and Ono,” Kennon said. “They spend so much money here, they have businesses here, they have children here so we do want them to be a part of our community.”

Not only will members work with their subgroup, Kennon is hoping they will become staple volunteers in the community and be a part of shaping the community.

All of the recruited volunteer work is another endeavor of the city to provide residents with the same quality of service before the city’s major budget cuts.