BAY MINETTE — The Baldwin County Commission agreed to pay $12,500 to remove an abandoned derelict sailboat in Lillian, but officials said they plan to find the vessel's owner and get the county's money back for the costs.

The commission voted Tuesday, Feb. 7, to approve a change order on construction of a county boat launch in Lillian. The change order authorized the county to pay the cost of removing the boat, which was interfering with construction.

Acting County Administrator Ron Cink said the contractor had hauled the boat out of the water in order to continue work on the boat launch.

Commissioner James "Jeb" Ball said the county will work to find the owner of the boat and have that person reimburse the county for the costs. He asked County Attorney Brad Hicks to determine what would need to be done to require boat owners to pay when derelict vessels have to be removed.

"I would like that boat under some type of investigation and get the serial number off that because I would like whoever owned that boat to give us $12,500 as a letter from you," Ball told Hicks. "I can't believe people just lose a boat and call it gone. I get it that storms take it away and stuff, but it's still your boat and once we find it and get it out of the water for you, to me, somebody's got to pay this cost, not the taxpayers."

At a county work session Monday, Feb. 6, Commission Chairman Charles "Skip" Gruber said finding the owners of abandoned boats has been difficult in the past.

"There's no way. There's no numbers. There's nothing there," Gruber said. "Nobody can find anything. When they cannibalize them, they cannibalize them so you can't find a way to trace them back."

Gruber said the boat in Lillian has been abandoned since Hurricane Sally struck the area in 2020. He said other abandoned boats have also been reported around the county.

He said state and county officials have the authority to remove derelict boats, but not the money.

"I have been talking with the Marine Police and all of those folks," Gruber said. "We had one in Bon Secour and the first thing they said was we can't do anything about it. We don't have any money. There was supposed to have been a thing, legislation passed, where they would remove these derelict boats and I think we even passed a resolution saying we would support this, but no money was ever appropriated by the state legislature to do anything with this. So, they're sitting there. They know where all these boats are, but they don't have any money to move them. That's ridiculous to have to put up with something right there by our fishing pier."