GULF SHORES, AL – Mayor Robert Craft was linked to what a national political blog reporter considered questionable dealings when it comes to a new road planned near the Foley Beach Express.

“Mayor Craft was listed in that and it really made my blood boil,” Councilman Jason Dyken said. “There has never been an ounce of impropriety from Robert Craft as mayor or even before then. I wish the press would get it right before they publish vindictive reports that are really untrue and not factual.”

In a far-reaching commentary on politics in Alabama, Paul Alexander of Huff Post Politics, concentrated mainly on the currently turmoil of Gov. Robert Bentley, House Speaker Mike Hubbard and Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.

Toward the bottom of the blog, Alexander questioned the mayor’s role in a new spur road off the Foley Beach Express. It would start just south of County Road 8 and continue to the east side of the Gulf Shores Business and Aviation Park to eventually join up with Waterway Boulevard East.

Previous routes had it coming off of County Road 8 south with the same destination. Two of the first three parcels are owned by the city, the north and south portions. A center parcel is owned by Turf Properties, a Craft-family business.

Alexander wrote in his concluding paragraph:

“It would make sense that in a state where the heads of government in all three branches are in legal and political peril, officials would be leery about a project that will likely financially benefit past and present politicians — George Wallace and Robert Craft — to build a bridge that may not even be needed.”

Alexander said the route would also include land owned by the former governor’s family.

Dyken’s challenging of the writer’s facts came after a discussion in a work session about plans for Craft to donate and the city to accept the very parcel Alexander was writing about.

But even there the facts don’t line up. First off, the bridge proposal talked about is now off the table.

“In the last couple of months there’s been something said about the new beach road and bridge,” City Administrator Steve Griffin said. “The irony of it is that spur is just south of this property. It actually traverses the Brooks Holmes property we acquired a year and a half ago.”

Craft’s family donated the 40 acres abutting the south side of County Road 8 and the Foley Beach express prior to the BP oil spill. The southern portion of 113 acres was purchased in late 2014 for $1.7 million from Brooks Holmes.

With the Craft family donating the center parcel of 45 acres the city now has 200-plus acres for an education campus the council has identified as a goal of its Vision 2025 strategic plan.

“The assembling of this land makes that dream a reality and lines it all up for partners to develop,” Griffin said. “The high school has the legs. We’re looking at different ways to build that. Faulkner state has remained committed in relocating a portion of their building for dual enrollment when that happens.

“In lining that up we wanted to bring this donation that needs to be formally accepted by the council and consummate that.”

The city has an option on the property on the north side of County Road 8 with an eye on locating a campus for a four-year school on the parcel.

“It’s an option so if they don’t come forward with an agreement to go forward then we get our money back if we can’t come to a conclusion with this institutional prospect that we’ve got,” Craft said at a meeting on March 7.

The preliminary purchase price is $2.1 million.

Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Doughty presided over the meeting after Craft left for the donation discussion. She, like Dyken, came to Craft’s defense.

“It bothers me when people jump to conclusions and make accusations with the absence of any facts,” she said. “For anybody to insinuate anything different really bothers me. I appreciate the Mayor and Beth being so generous to give us that land. He’s committed to education and I think that’s fantastic.”