PERDIDO BEACH, Ala. — A large crowd packed Perdido Beach Baptist Church on Aug. 20 for a landmark event in the long history of this community. A mayor and five council members were installed as the new town’s first officers. The ceremony was punctuated with well-wishing, a sense of history and the inevitability of the long road ahead for the county’s fourteenth and newest municipality.

“We wished for this and we got it,” Al Thompson, one of the new councilmen, said in remarks following the installation ceremony.

David Brewer, Baldwin County assistant administrator, welcomed the new officers to what he called the “fish bowl” and their “last gasp of air as private citizens.”

County Commissioner Skip Gruber, who gave the welcome, said the new town has a “long way to go” but it will be a good journey.

Probate Judge Adrian Johns, who presided over the installation of the six officers, called it a “red-letter day for the community of Perdido Beach.”

New mayor Patsy Parker, reading from a prepared speech, spoke about the history of Perdido Beach; the evidence of Native Americans in coastal sections of the county; how the area was once part of a large Spanish land grant; how Spanish explorers – “maybe even pirates” – might have come into Soldier Creek in small boats.

“Perdido Beach started out with a bang,” Parker said, a reference to the sawmill, ice house, fish camp, Orange Crush bottling plant, hotel, turpentine mill, church and school the community once had. In time, she said, the community came to have a “laid back lifestyle.”

“Perdido Beach is a living museum,” Parker said, quoting someone else.

“We are charged with taking care of the land, the water and each other,” Parker said in her final remarks.

Besides Parker and Thompson, others who took the oath of office were Councilman William Kelley, Councilman Ronnie Resmondo, Councilwoman Patti Larsen, and Councilman Dennis Kaiser.

Resmondo said, “I’m a product of this place,” and told those on hand the incorporation issue had been a tough decision for him. Resmondo said he has been blessed to live and work in Perdido Beach.

Kaiser called the event a “tremendous milestone for our small community.”

Councilman Don Koontz of Elberta offered his congratulations to the town’s new officers, while Mayor Charles Houser of Magnolia Springs, the last municipality to incorporate, said his town’s experience had been “98 percent positive” with “very little negative.”

Parker and Thompson thanked the mayor and town of Magnolia Springs for helping the Town of Perdido Beach get started and county staffs for their support.

“This is just the beginning. We still need your support,” Thompson said.

Gruber presented Parker with a set of flags that included the U.S. flag, the Alabama flag, and the Baldwin County flag.

Johns told those on hand that the six who took oaths were unopposed in seeking their respective offices in the new town government.

The Rev. Fred McGee prayed the invocation, while Owen Brewer gave the closing prayer. A reception was held in the church fellowship hall following the installation ceremony.