GULF SHORES, Ala. — Developers of the Adventure Center at Gulf State Park hope to begin work again Thursday after a Wednesday meeting in Montgomery to secure another permit.

But one of the project’s owners, Tom Schlinkert, says any delays caused by the snag won’t likely keep the new zipline in Gulf State Park from opening on schedule on March 3.

And the new attraction in the Lake Shelby picnic area will be the host to the Relay for Life cancer research fundraiser on April 6, something Schlinkert is excited about.

“We’re going to do the first ever zip relay for cancer,” he said. “Every zip trip will have a Relay person on it that day. And we’re also going to donate 10 percent of our proceeds that day as well.

“It’s a good thing and I think that it’s cool that never in the history of the Relay has there never been anything but walking. So we’re going to do the first zip relay.”

But there’s the construction to complete first. A state official showed up at the site a few weeks ago to inquire about a contracting license that Schlinkert says his contractor didn’t have, but hardly anyone knew existed.

“Believe it or not Alabama has a recreational general contractor’s license,” Schlinkert, said. “Strangely enough it falls under the heading of a utility contractor so it’s a subheading of a utility contractor. If you are building recreational equipment you are supposed to have this particular license which apparently our contractor was unaware of.”

In fact, Schlinkert said, he had a hard time just finding a contractor currently holding such a license.

“Apparently somebody turned us in anonymously and I think that’s because they heard they were a North Carolina contractor, but who knows,” he said. “But we had a visit from a guy who works for the board who wanted to see that see that segment of the license and we were like ‘what?’”

Schlinkert’s first thought was to find a contractor who already had the recreational designation.

“Let me tell, it’s not easy to find a contractor,” he said. “We were just going to find a contractor, hire him and subcontract the guys we got working to him, but there aren’t very many of them. I’ve got a feeling there are not very many people who know you have to have them.”

Schlinkert says all the preliminary work and requirements have been met and the license will be issued Wednesday morning in Montgomery.

“We ended up having to go before the board of the contractors in Montgomery, explain why we didn’t have it and basically they pled ignorance,” he said. “They said the contractor had to take a test to qualify for that license category. If they passed the test they would then meet on Feb. 20 and grant us a license.

“Our contractor’s engineer has passed the test, we don’t anticipate any problems and we intend to start back on (Thursday).”

Once the construction is complete, Schlinkert said the company is already making plans to have the staff trained and ready for the March opening.

“Our head guide reports for duty from North Carolina on Saturday and we’ll start training,” he said. “We’ll have a whole staff that comes down to train the folks that we’ve hired as guides. That will start in early March as well. That’s a four- to five-day long training period.”

Schlinkert was pleased with the applicants who came looking for the jobs on the new attraction.

“We’ve completed our first round of hiring,” he said. “We found incredibly good talent in the area. Not people who knew how to zipline but lots of bright folks that were interested and interesting. Frankly I was ecstatic about the quality of people.”

Crews are also on hand just to improve the general look of the parts of the park the zipline will fly over.

“We’re continuing to landscape and continuing to fluff up that whole area so it’s going to be vastly improved for when the season starts,” Schlinkert said. “Some of the trees need to be taken better care of, we’re going to start doing some fertilizing programs just to make that area what it should be.”

Schlinkert said the rate structure is not complete, but expects individual costs to be between $79 and $89. There will be discounts offered for groups and families as well as special rates worked out with condominiums.

“Our rates should publish very shortly because our website is now operational although we are tweaking it,” he said. The website is www.zipthe gulf.com.

Schlinkert says the families that already come here for vacation will have yet another outlet that offers a unique experience.

“We anticipate it’s going to be a really good thing all the way around,” he said.