GULF SHORES, AL — The Monday city council meeting in Gulf Shores will be a busy and fun-filled one, Mayor Robert Craft promises.

First off, this will be the farewell to the Carolyn Doughty farewell tour. City staffers and citizens have had three presentations praising and teasing the councilwoman who is retiring after 15 years of serving on the council.

“Typically we’ve been doing the past few months, this exit program of recognizing Carolyn for all she’s done since she’s leaving and how much we are going to miss her,” Craft said. “We’ve had special presentations all along this tour and we have several people lined up. This will be the final Carolyn tribute.”

Craft said on the same day the city will reveal an advance in its efforts to develop an education campus in the city.

“There will be a major announcement on our education campus at that time,” he said. “There will be a tenant that will be announcing a program to be presented out there that all of you will find very interesting and we’re all excited about that. The 24th is going to be a big night.”

So far in the Doughty tour Fire Chief Hartly Brokenshaw and City Clerk Wanda Parris combined on tribute, Evelyn Sanders of the Beautification Board and City Planner Andy Bauer did another as did Building Official Brandan Franklin.

On Oct. 3 Doughty’s co-workers from Century 21 Meyer Real Estate showed up en masse to wish her well and thank her for her service.

Thank you to the council allowing us to publicly thank Carolyn,” Owner and Broker Shelia Hodges said. “I think this is awesome.”

Hodges said even though Doughty gave her all as a councilwoman, her efforts at Meyer never wavered and her tenacity and attention to detail carried over in her job there.

“What I knew about Carolyn is she’d still be 100 percent committed to Meyer Real Estate,” Hodges said. “Those things that you describe about Carolyn are gifts. And a gift that we didn’t have any less of Carolyn because she contributed to the city.

“And how proud we at Meyer, which has been around almost as long as the city, has been able to make this contribution for this period of time. On our chalk board we have contributed a mayor to the city and a mayor pro tem. I’m really proud of that.”

Craft said Meyer’s commitment to the city and its contribution of Doughty as a councilwoman is appreciated.

“What you described for Meyer is exactly what she does for us,” Craft said. “Everything. We get punctuation marks and everything has to be exactly right. She’s been a great leader and a great mayor pro tem. I was out a fair amount of time when I was going through some issues and never worried one minute about the city losing a step.”

At one point Doughty and Craft were both talking about running for mayor. Craft, at the time, was pondering if he was going to be a “one and done” mayor and Doughty was considering a run if he didn’t.

“So not only is she a good council person, she would be a good mayor,” Craft said. “We talked about that for a period of time. I wasn’t sure I wanted to run again and she was sure she wanted to run.”

Doughty also had another candidate in mind.

“I was sure I wanted him to,” she said. “And it worked.”

Hodges ended the presentation with a formal thank-you to Doughty and the city and her co-workers responded with a thunderous standing ovation.