PERDIDO BEACH, Ala. — It will be a new day on Thursday for this community on the northern shore of Perdido and Wolf bays, so new, as a matter of fact, that the designation is now “town,” not “community.”

Six residents of Baldwin County’s newest municipality will be installed at 6 p.m. at Perdido Beach Baptist Church. They will become the first municipal government for this town of 558.

Patsy Parker, one of the leaders of the move to incorporate Perdido Beach — a process that officially began in October 2008 — will be sworn in as mayor. Five others will be sworn in as town council members. They are Patti Larsen, Dennis Kaiser, William Kelley, Ronnie Resmondo and Al Thompson.

Baldwin County Probate Judge Adrian Johns will administer the oaths of office to the six. It was Johns who signed the order of incorporation for the town this past June and Johns who received incorporation papers from a Perdido Beach delegation on Oct. 9, 2008.

“This is a very big moment — very historic,” Patsy Parker said on Tuesday of the upcoming installation.

“It’s important for the community and folks are excited about it.”

Parker called it a “bit overwhelming” at this point to think about what is required for a town to govern itself, but said the slate of officers who will take office have done their homework.

“We don’t want to go too far too fast,” Parker said. “We want to keep what we have.”

Among the first orders of business for the new government will be concentrating on getting organized and getting ordinances and such in place, Parker said.

In April of this year, a referendum was held on incorporation that passed by a vote of 192-113. Prior to incorporation papers being submitted to Johns, in January 2008 a poll was conducted in the Perdido Beach community to determine feelings about incorporation Of the 268 individual responses, 57 percent favored incorporation.

Perdido Beach Baptist Church is located on Baldwin County Road 97, four miles south of the intersection of U.S. Highway 98 and County Road 97.

Light refreshments will be served following the installation ceremony.