GULF SHORES, Ala. — Back before the oil spill stopped an entire coast in its tracks, Gulf Shores was making preparations to acquire a grant to study how the public beaches in the town could be improved.

In fact, the leg work and study by city staffers had already begun in earnest to obtain a $40,000 matching grant from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

“It’s kind of a quick turnaround on this because these are leftover funds from the 2012 grant process,” City Planner Andy Bauer said. “We have to spend it by Feb. 28 of 2014 so there’s about one year.”

The City Council approved reviving that grant effort and matching the $40,000 with mostly in-kind services. The city also awarded a bid for more than $337,000 for construction of the new concession stand at Sims Park.

Mayor Robert Craft asked where the money would come from, but supported seeking the grant for the study.

“Don’t misunderstand my comments,” Craft said. “It’s a lot better to try and come up with half of it than come up with all of it.”

Finance Director Cindy King said the money is there, but most of it could be covered by city staffers’ work on the study.

“Most of it can be covered with in-kind services and the Finance Committee did discuss this in our last meeting and surely we can come up the rest of it,” King said.

Phillip Harris asked if copies of the previous work and report could be distributed to council members.

“I think what we had before was generated from multiple inputs from meetings and trips to places and there was a lot of information put into it,” Harris said. “So before we start the process over I thought it might be good to revisit where we left off and maybe tweaking where we started than go out and start another one.”

Councilman Jason Dyken asked if the work on the previous study count toward the in-kind services toward the city’s $40,000 match.

“We can count staff time on that,” Bauer said.

Bauer said city staffers have some ideas for improvements, but will to employ consultants with the grant to see which of those ideas work and to come up with new ideas.

“We’ll hire someone to develop a master plan for the beach area at Gulf Place,” Bauer said. “The boardwalk and all that stuff is dated and I don’t know when it was installed. Maybe the 70s? The city’s vision is that place could be, or needs to be, something really, really nice for residents and tourists.”

The location is perfect for development and improvements, Bauer said.

“Because of the design it’s not utilized as much as it could be,” he said. “It’s utilized during the day, but at night there’s no one there. Even during the day there’s no shade, some water with pedestrian promenades and that type of thing. You probably could do more activities if you designed it in a certain way. More play areas and maybe water features.

“We all have ideas and that’s why we need some design professionals to put our ideas on paper and to inject their ideas into it.”

Councilwoman Carolyn Doughty said she hopes to study will be thorough and the changes will be relevant for years to come.

“It’s our one time to try to get something right down there,” she said. “You don’t want to do something and turn two years from now and throw that out and start out all over again.”

Also included in the study will be ways to improve the city’s park at Little Lagoon pass.

“It’s underutilized in the same way,” Bauer said. “It’s really not as developed and even with a master plan it would be more of a passive recreational area, not quite as active as the public beach. That could be spectacular too with the nature and the setting. On the lagoon side we own a pretty good bit of property so we could add some walkways, expand the parking, maybe some gazebos for shade.”

The council accepted a bid from Asphalt Services, Inc., for just more than $337,000 to construct the Sims Park concession stand. The original bid was about $313,000, but a few additional items added up to the final amount.

“These added alternates include creating a little picnic area out front as well as replacing the proposed shingles with a metal roof which is more in keeping with the surrounding facilities,” Public Works Director Mark Acreman said. “Although it is a little bit more money I think it will add to the overall concept and attractiveness of the facility especially as we start seeing more and more large-scale events at our Sportsplex and with the spill over we’ll utilize Sims Park as well.”