GULF SHORES, Ala. – Paying for parking at the Gulf Shores Public Beach will return March 1, but those with hurricane stickers can get a break.

Grant Brown, director of Recreation and Cultural Affairs, told the council of the move at Feb. 13’s council meeting.

During the meeting the council also heard about progress with new traffic signals, the success of an electronics recycling program and the upcoming opening of bids for the new fire station.

Also, Chief Building/Environmental Official Brandan Franklin said resident with Gulf front property will soon get letters telling them to put addresses on the beach side of their homes as well as street side.

“Today we returned the parking pay stations to the beach front area,” Brown told the council. “The ordinance requires the controlled parking access fees go back into effect March 1. We’ve been working to get signage back in place.”

Every two years locals receive a hurricane evacuation sticker to aid reentry after storms and those will also get you free parking at Gulf Place or the main public beach area.

“This is not a year where we distribute decals for reentry for hurricane evacuation,” Brown said. “That local decal also acts as a parking decal at the beach. Residents who have moved into our area recently should contact City Hall or come to City Hall and bring a proof of their residency, a water bill or utility bill, and they can apply to get there reentry decals which also acts as their parking decals.”

Public Works Director Mark Acreman says work on the new computerized signals for Alabama 59 from the Intracoastal Waterway to the beach are on schedule to be completed before the tourist season hits.

“Plans are about 90 percent complete and are under review right now by the DOT right now for their permit application,” Acreman said. “As soon as we get the authorization from all the businesses that are affected by this project, we’ll set up a meeting with those businesses to discuss construction schedule so that they know how the construction schedules lay out and how we would avoid any kind of interruption to their daily activities.

Two areas getting close scrutiny are Club House Road and Alabama 59 and at Eighth Street and Alabama 59.

“There’s an attempt to consolidate the red lights at Club House and Winn Dixie, the one at Waterville and Eighth Avenue, which is where the Hardee’s is located at,” Acreman said. “I’ve received unanimous support from all the other businesses and I’m working with those now. We hope to get all this in place before the summer season.”

Franklin said addresses on the beach side of property are required, but not enforced. Until now.

“There’s an ordinance on the books we are going to enforce this year that requires all Gulf-fronting structures to have the addressing on the beach front side,” he said. “I’m going to put that list together, an address list, and that’s going to go out in the next week or two to all the property owners there to let them know that signage is required on the Gulf frontage side.”

Franklin said it is a safety issue. In case of an emergency, someone can direct response teams to a specific address.

There’s an empty lot where the old Fire Station 1 sat at the City Hall complex. That’s starting to change already as the move for the new station begins.

“We’ve got activity going on at the fire station,” Chief Hartly Brokenshaw said. “Gulf Shores Utilities put the new waterline in before we get started on construction. We’ve got a pre-bid conference Friday and opening of the bids Thursday week.”

Councilman Steve Jones said the E-cycling day at the Gulf State Park Pavilion on Jan. 28 was a rousing success.

“We collected over 10,600 pounds of items that are going to be disposed of properly,” Jones said.

Due to a mix up, some residents thought LuLu’s was also a drop-off spot and a couple of thousand pounds of electronics for recycling was left there as well. E-covery, a company in Loxley, picked up the items collected at both locations.