GULF SHORES, AL – On a recent morning Mayor Robert Craft was going over some items with staff members before the afternoon’s Gulf Shores Council meeting.

“It seemed everyone had a vehicle request and I was like ‘wait a minute, timeout. Why?’” Craft said during the meeting. “Are you doing it because you want it, are you doing it because we need it?”

First up at the council work session with a request for four pickup trucks was Public Works Director Mark Acreman. His presentation to the council and Craft received a more welcome response.

“That was a better answer than this morning,” Craft said as the chamber erupted in laughter. “I wouldn’t let them count on buying this many vehicles every year,” Craft added later when a 15-passenger van purchase was discussed.

Both Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have of late been buying up vehicles, most of them planned purchases and in the 2016 budget.

Along with the four pickups for Public Works, the Building Department is getting a new midsize truck for a newly hired inspector, Parks and Recreation is replacing a 15-passenger van, the beach safety division is adding two WaveRunners and a pickup truck, and the Fire Department added two new trucks.

Gulf Shores is spending just more than $1 million on the vehicles with the bulk of that – $812,000 – for the two firetrucks.

Acreman said the four trucks for his department are replacing a 1994 vehicle with 144,000 miles, two 1998 models with 122,000 miles and 149,000 miles, respectively, and a 2001 model with 132,000 miles.

“The Public Works maintenance division evaluates every city vehicle and piece of equipment in the entire fleet annually and we’ll make a recommendation,” he said. “These four vehicles had a rating of 40 percent or less so they were in bad shape.”

Orange Beach is spending about $500,000 on variety of new vehicles, most budgeted items, some not and some being partially paid for with grants.

The police department is getting five new vehicles, two Ford Police Interceptors, two Chevy Tahoes and a crew cab pickup truck. The Interceptors and Tahoes are budgeted items while the pickup is not.

Also on the police department’s wish list are two unbudgeted four-door Jeeps, which would cost the city about $70,000. Bids were sought for the purchase of the vehicle, but those the city received were nonconforming.

Two Suzuki motors were purchased for Police Marine Unit No. 2 at a cost of $40,272, and was a budgeted item.

Coastal Resources is receiving three vehicles and a boat. Two four-door Jeeps will be used in the Beach Ambassador program and cost about $70,000 for the pair. These are non-budgeted items but are part of the Beach Initiative Program budget.

“We made a presentation to the council for the Beach Initiative Program which included labor, equipment, supplies and marketing,” Coastal Resources Director Phillip West said. “It comes to just under $1.3 million.”

Also for the Beach Initiative a non-budgeted $43,000 Ford F-350 with a dump bed was approved for the program. A Carolina Skiff for Coastal Resources was also purchased for just more than $41,000 and was on the budget as $32,000.

In the Public Works department a street sweeper was purchased for about $62,000, a Takeuchi Mini Excavator for $65,219 and two John Deere mowers for  $7,783 apiece or $15,567. All of these items were in the budget.

The fire department was approved for two new Honda 700 ATVs for surf rescue and the non-budgeted items cost $20,500.