GULF SHORES, Ala. –  When the state track meet came to Gulf Shores in early May, it almost didn’t happen.

Problems with the 13-year-old track coupled with a recent heavy rain event caused concern among state officials running the meet. Gulf Shores has served as host city for the meet for the past several years.

“The expected lifetime of a track is about 10 years,” Councilman Jason Dyken said. “We’ve been piece-mealing that thing together for years. It came to a head this year at the state track meet where we had excessive amounts of rain and with the athletes with the spikes on their cleats trying to set records had a very difficult time with that track to the point where there was a threat of having the track meet canceled.”

Dyken, also chairman of the city’s Finance Committee, recommended the city replace the track to keep the event coming back to Gulf Shores. At Monday’s meeting, the council approved $300,000 for a new track.

The money will come from a recent credit facility the city received and has left over funds or it will come from the general fund budget.

“Whichever makes the most financial sense,” Dyken said. “We had a credit facility that we tapped for the radios for the fire and the police and they were under budget so we have some flexibility for some additional funds from there to help us pay for the track.”

Part of the city’s contract with the state deals with having facilities necessary to host a track meet. Dyken believes a new track will meet that criteria and help ensure the event comes back to Gulf Shores.

“The request from the state track meet was in order for us to fulfill our obligations for our contract with the state was to have adequate facilities,” Dyken said. “We’ve always prided ourselves on excellent facilities and even having from the state organization that our track was not up to par is, I think, something the city needs to look long and hard at. And we have.”

A new track, also with an expected 10-year lifespan, would cost $250,000 to $300,000 to construct.

“We have a wonderful sporting facility in Gulf Shores that is host to baseball tournaments, softball tournaments, state track meet,” he said. “That asset is very important to the city.”

Dyken said an economic impact study revealed what having the meet does for the city financially.

“We took that expenditure very seriously in regards to whether we want to fund that or not,” he said. “We found that the state track meet has a direct impact to the city of about $30,000 a year. That doesn’t include the indirect impact it has in the community and the impact it has to surrounding communities like Orange Beach and Foley.”

Councilman Phillip Harris asked about the overall economic impact to the area.

“There’s slightly over $1.1 million expenditures generated in this area from that state track meet,” Dyken said. “The direct revenues and including some indirect revenues for the city is $30,000 which would be kind of our costs to finance the repair of the track.

“We have the cost subsidized by having that event in our city.”

Councilman Joe Garris said the expenditure was well worth it just for the exposure the city gets while teams and coaches and athletes’ families are in town.

“A lot of kids see this place for the first time and as they grow older, they’ll come back and bring their families, so it’s a positive impact,” Garris said.

The council vote to fund the new track was unanimous.