FOLEY, Ala. and ORANGE BEACH, Ala. -The South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce and Alabama Gulf Coast Area Chamber of Commerce did not merge Wednesday, as the Gulf Coast Chamber only received around a 65 percent approval for the proposed consolidation.
The resolution proposing the consolidation required a 75 percent approval of the entire membership of each chamber.
The South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce reported that its members voted to consolidate, with a 78.1 percent approval. 523 members voted in favor of the proposition, and 146 members either voted against it or did not vote at all.
On the Gulf Coast Chamber side, 511 members voted in favor of the merger and 266 voted either against the resolution or did not vote. The Gulf Coast Chamber was 72 votes short of the necessary 75 percent marker. Of those who sent in ballots, 92.5 percent voted affirmative.
Joe Joe McCarron, chairman of the Gulf Coast Chamber board of directors, said this was the largest turnout for any vote for the Alabama Gulf Coast Area Chamber of Commerce and he doesn't know when or if consolidation of the two chambers will be considered in the future.
"From the membership who voted, they were overwhelmingly in favor of consolidation,” he said. "I'm disappointed that not everybody voted."
Greg Kennedy, past chairman of the Gulf Coast Chamber board, said a merger is not a necessity, and he pointed out that the South Baldwin area and the Gulf Coast area are competitive in some areas. He also said he had issues with the voting process.
"We have issues that our areas have differed on,” he said. “We've been trying to get a hospital on the island for years. Our biggest adversary has always been the South Baldwin Medical Center and Foley.
"We've always had a good relationship with South Baldwin. We work well on the issues we agree on. I don't think the merger is necessary…What's the benefit of it? The advantages they point out are things we already do."
The two chambers' board of directors voted earlier this year to bring a potential merger to its members. The unified chamber would have been named the Coastal Baldwin Regional Chamber of Commerce.
"I'm proud of our members," Britton Bonner, chairman of the South Baldwin Chamber, said about the Foley area members approving a merger.
The two chambers serve the areas of Foley, Summerdale, Elberta, Magnolia Springs, Bon Secour, Orange Beach, Fort Morgan and Gulf Shores.
