The Mayor of Gulf Shores will close public beaches Friday morning and is urging other local leaders and Gov. Kay Ivey to close the rest to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19.
“We are facing unprecedented times here in the state of Alabama,” said Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft, speaking to NBC 15 News Thursday morning.
Craft said he’s been meeting with Orange Beach mayor Tony Kinnon, Dauphin Island’s mayor Jeff Collier and Baldwin County Commissioner Billie Joe Underwood to “try to come to some consensus of what we want to do.”
Craft said Gov. Kay Ivey has asked for a consensus decision from those local leaders by 10 a.m. Thursday, and said, “ I cannot tell you what we will do as a collective” but that he will be closing all public access beaches in Gulf Shores effective 7 a.m. Friday morning.
Craft said he’s hopeful that the group comes to a consensus, and Ivey agrees, “to close all of our beaches for a two-week rest period…let’s protect our community.”
The visitors during spring break “are not adhering to this social distancing…and we’re not able to control the crowds,” Craft said.
“We don’t want to facilitate spread throughout the area, and spread throughout the state,” Craft said.
The Baldwin County Commission is to meet Thursday morning to discuss whether to ask Ivey to close the public beaches along Baldwin County’s coastline, according to several news accounts.
