GULF SHORES, Ala. — A large group of concerned Gulf Shores residents and some city officials gathered at the Adult Activity Center on Thursday for another town hall meeting. Newly hired director of parks, rec and cultural arts Grant Brown was the featured speaker for the meeting. Brown was hired following the retirement of Harold Samples, who held the position for 22 years.

Mayor Robert Craft and most of the council were not able to attend, but Councilman Steve Jones and several department heads were on hand to field questions from the audience.

Brown covered items and events dealing with the Gulf Shores Museum, the Thomas B. Norton Library, the Bodenhamer Recreation Center, and touched on the recent meetings with beach vendors and changes that will be taking place in the near future.

“If you haven’t been to the museum lately, I would encourage you to do so,” Brown said. “There are new displays and exhibits being put in continuously, the most recent being a World War II display.”

Brown said that the museum, which hosts around 6,000 guests annually will begin to work more closely with the library which has approximately 50,000 visits per year, to hopefully enhance attention to the museum.

Brown said that his focus over the next few weeks was going to be on communication, mainly through the newly restructured City of Gulf Shores Website.

“A lot of what I am talking to you about tonight, you might not know, and as well as our local papers do in getting information out there, we have a wonderful Web site tool,” Brown said. “We want people to know that they can go to our Web site and it will tell them about a library event coming up or about a group coming to the rec center or just any information that we want to get out to the community.”

Brown also said the while Gulf Shores presently offers a wide variety of activities to citizens of Gulf Shores, there are some people that the city is missing.

“We have great programs for our youth in our youth athletic programs and our after school programs, but there are some areas where we need to offer more. There are working class parents, busy with children, and we need to offer programs for them as well.”

Brown encouraged the citizens to give him feedback regarding what the city can do make things better.

“I am easy to find at City Hall, and I certainly would appreciate any kind of suggestions or any thoughts you might have on how we can make the recreation and culture activities better for our community and for you, the residents.”