FAIRHOPE — Trip Pittman’s unexpected visit to a city meeting this week may have added environmental issues to his calendar, if he gets the job.

Pittman, a Republican, is seeking to fill the county’s vacant state Senate seat in Tuesday’s election.

“I was surprised to say the least,” said Jim Horner, the Fairhope Environmental Advisory Board’s new chairman, of Pittman’s walking through the doors at Wednesday’s meeting. “It did offer us the chance to encourage him to attend a meeting next Thursday on storm water run-off legislation that will require the next senator to marshall it through.”

Pittman said that he would attend that meeting two days after the election if he wins and his schedule does not prevent it.

“We’ve got a huge storm water problem going on,” said board member Ron Heveran, who invited Pittman to the meeting organized by the local office of the National Estuarine Program. “This group represents all communities in this county. They have been studying the problem for years.”

Pittman said that he had wanted for several months to attend the monthly meeting of the Fairhope citizen advisory board.

The group’s purpose includes advising the mayor and city council about environmental issues facing the community, according to the city’s Web site.

The storm water issue was one of several concerns discussed at an organizational meeting in preparation for the appointment of a new group of board members at the Oct. 15 City Council meeting. Two council members will also be appointed at that time as liaisons to the citizen committee, Horner said.

“I started that committee in 2001,” Councilwoman Debbie Quinn said. “It came out of the election and a lot of concerns about flooding, and water quality of the bay, rivers and creeks in the area.”

Quinn said that she asked the group to come up with a “Top 10” list of environmental issues facing the city.

Horner told the dozen people at Wednesday’s meeting that they would be doing that, and also presenting suggestions to the mayor and City Council for actions needed to address them.

“There’s been a lot of concern about wetland issues around construction of the proposed Route 13 highway,” Quinn said. “I think the environmental committee is a good way of researching interesting concepts and a good way of creating some dialogue on the subject.”

The board also discussed what they could do to improve communications and encourage public involvement in its work.

“I looked around to see what the rest of the country was doing about environmental boards,” committee member Garland Sims said. “They’ve got all their agendas on their Web site, and they’re quite detailed about what they do.”

Board member Lisa Adams said they should adopt a mission statement to guide environmental policy in the city.

“We could also solicit public input on that,” Horner said.

The Fairhope Environmental Advisory Board meets at 9 a.m., the second Wednesday of every month in City Hall. At the next meeting on Nov. 14, Wayne Dyess, director of the county’s Planning and Zoning Department, has been invited to talk about growth management and zoning issues in Baldwin County.