ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – The Orange Beach Water Authority board voted Thursday to spend $ 12,500 to buy two easements from Orange Beach Marina to bore under a canal on the property for a waterline.

But that doesn’t mean the board members were happy about it.

“We had to ask for an easement, but they didn’t ask for money to begin with,” System Manager Judy Sullivan said. “It’s not uncommon for us to pay for an easement, but not that large amount of money. We normally pay anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500.”

The bore will complete a water loop that will increase fire flow in the improved area from 700 gallons a minute to 1,200 gallons a minute, according to Water Authority Superintendent Jeff White. It will also provide fire hydrants to Cove Drive residents for the first time.

Orange Beach Marina is a water customer on the new loop that will share those benefits, water officials and board members said.

One of those who own a house on Cove Drive is Orange Beach Marina owner Earl Long. The Islander left messages seeking comment at the marina twice on Friday.

And while the board voted to pay for the easement because the line will be an improvement for so many people, member Godbee Smith cast the lone dissenting vote.

“It just gores me for us to have to pay somebody to improve their circumstances,” Smith said. “You have got a citizen that is taking advantage of us, pure and simple, for money. He’s an opportunist.”

Smith says the bore will not only benefit the marina, but the entire area’s water and fire service. System Manager Judy Sullivan said 70 households will benefit from the improved service.

“I think it’s wrong,” he said. “We’re going to go down on somebody else’s property, we’re going underneath his property, down to China, and then we’re going to the other side and coming out on somebody else’s property.

“He’s not going to be affected, but we have got to pay an easement to go underneath it. We get no further benefit.”

Part of the plan has always called for a fire hydrant at the spot where it comes out of the ground on the other side of the canal on Cove Drive and directly north of the marina.

It just so happens that Long owns the house the hydrant will sit in front of.

“We’re not putting the fire hydrant in his front yard because he owns the marina,” Smith said. “That was the plan all along. It just so happens he’s going to benefit by having a fire hydrant.”

Board Chairman Phil Williamson voted for the expenditure because of the added benefits a looped system brings, but he had feelings similar to Smith’s.

“I don’t like it because they want the money, but it will benefit more than them,” Williamson said. “And as a former firefighter, it’s one of those things that when you can help fire protection, you want to.”

The board was following White’s recommendation to OK the money for the easement because of the extra benefits it offers.

“I agree that it’s cheesy for them to want that, but it’s also going to help a lot of people,” White said. “It’s my opinion the benefit is worth the cost.

“Connecting the lines from Martinique and Cove Drive is going to benefit all of Marina Road and all of Martinique as well as north Terry Cove. It will basically almost double their fire flow. Right now they’d be getting water from one direction, from Marina Road. If we connect those lines they’ll be getting water from two directions.”

Orange Beach Administrative Fire Chief Wade Stevens was on hand to speak to the board on another matter, but endorsed the looping of Martinique and Cove as better than dead end lines on either side of the marina’s canal.

“We run into in situations a lot like at the end of Martinique and Cove with those dead end lines,” Stevens said. “If you’re responding to a fire in an area like that, right off the bat you’re thinking ‘OK, we’re going to have water problems’ because we do have significantly lower fire flow.”

Authority inspector Jim Brown gave a positive report on the continuing project which recently extended a line from near Safe Harbor Drive to Cove Drive and is now working down Cove toward the back of the marina.

“They’re on Cove Drive now, they’re just about done with Marina Road,” Brown said. “They’ve got about 500 feet of pipe at the bore down at the end to connect and they’ve got two long driveway bores to do on Cove Drive. Once they connect those up Cove Drive will be done down to the (marina).

“They’re going fast, it’s going smooth. Weather’s been good. The winter has been great and the water table is low and we haven’t gotten into as much water as we usually do.”