Was anyone really surprised that the Spanish Fort City Council voiced its support for the proposed interchange at Interstate 10 and Baldwin County Highway 13, and the proposed I-10 service road extension?

Heck no! 

And, if you have been observing closely, was anyone really surprised that State Rep. Randy Davis, R-Daphne, likewise supported these same road projects? 

Heck no. 

Spanish Fort Mayor Joe Bonner and his City Council and Davis have long supported these projects but chose to remain out of the fray. As one who has been around a few years, I know the game. Let others take the blame and you take the praise.

But in this case, Spanish Fort politicos and Davis believed that their cohorts — Mayor Fred Small, Sen. Tripp Pittman, R-Montrose, and Commissioner Bob James were weakening in their resolve and decided to come out of the closet. If you have been reading the newspapers, you know that Spanish Fort stands to possibly gain a little and to lose nothing by supporting the I-10 service road and interchange. The service road would connect two of Spanish Fort’s shopping centers (Spanish Fort Town Center — Bass Pro Shops — and Eastern Shore Centre). Both of these shopping centers are located entirely in the city of Spanish Fort.

And concentrate on this: The proposed I-10 service road and interchange are located entirely in the city of Daphne.

So, of course Spanish Forts wants to connect their two shopping centers with a road running through Daphne’s territory. Spanish Fort would get the business and tax revenue while Daphne’s citizens get a road they strongly oppose.

And there is more.

That same proposed I-10 service road that may increase business and tax revenues in Spanish Fort would create a by-pass of Daphne’s Jubilee Square Shopping Center and other businesses along U.S. Hwy. 90! These merchants are already suffering economically and the proposed service road would increase their economic woes.

Unbelievably, Daphne’s Mayor Small also supports the service road by-pass that will hurt his city’s businesses. And it is Daphne’s citizens who would suffer the consequences of the proposed service road. Lake Forest citizens’ homes are being flooded and some of their prime lands are being eroded and polluted from the massive stormwater runoff from I-10 and other roads and developments in the watershed. Building the proposed I-10 service road would vastly increase the stormwater runoff flowing down D’Olive Creek and into Lake Forest Lake.

Do Spanish Fort’s officials or Mayor Small care? It doesn’t appear so. After all, these are Daphne citizens catching the brunt of damages.

Then there are those vocal TimberCreek residents who dare to stand up to politicians and tell them, “not in our back yard.” I am one of them. Yes, we TimberCreek residents work hard to protect our community. We worked hard to buy our nice homes. We have strict covenants that we enforce to protect the value of our property. We voluntarily pay hefty monthly fees to maintain our property.

Do you get the message?

Then if you do, you know damn well that we will fight and do whatever is necessary to protect our property and community values from outside offenders. We will not sit idly by and let politicians do anything that degrades our community or property values. We do not ask more of the politicians than we ask of ourselves.

We are strongly opposed to the proposed I-10 service road but we do support the proposed I-10/Highway 13 interchange. Building of the service road would destroy a wide buffer of trees between I-10 and 85 TimberCreek homes. Rather than trees in their back yards, these home owners would have a service road that is noisy and subject to attracting all sorts of commercial development and gaudy signs. We recognize that many people could care less about Lake Forest or TimberCreek citizens. We can deal with that. But for the umpteenth time, there are already three roads connecting the Spanish Fort Town Center to the Eastern Shore Centre — and that is enough.

And to all the politicians who are in favor of the proposed I-10 service road, I have a suggestion: If you want to spend some of our taxpayer’s money, then spend it to correct the calamity in the Lake Forest watershed. Previous unregulated developments of all sorts have created havoc and property losses to Lake Forest subdivision. I favor assistance to correct those problems.