FOLEY – As the new year begins, Foley is making plans for the future that include more streets and new buildings to meet growing demands.

In a recent address to the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Ralph Hellmich said Foley needs a new swimming facility and civic center as the community continues to grow. Other improvements being considered include a new senior center and performing arts center.

Hellmich said the city’s current outdoor pool is more than 60 years old. Work will start after next summer on an indoor aquatics center.

“We have a design on the Aquatic Center,” Hellmich said. “This is an indoor center that will be open year-round. It’s something that our folks demand and they deserve now. We have a great pool, but it was built before I was born and it’s an outside pool that you can’t use throughout the year.”

He said plans for the center also include a splash pad for small children. The city also plans other improvements, such as LED lighting and new restrooms, near the site at Max Griffin Park.

Speaking to an audience in the Foley Civic Center, Hellmich said the current Civic Center is also not adequate for the city’s needs.

“This one was built in ‘75,” he said. “We have to have a bigger place. We have an Event Center, but it’s not designed for events like this.”

Addressing a capacity audience of about 225, Hellmich said the new center will hold twice as many people.

“It’ll be a new, modern center,” he said. “Then, this can be converted into office space that will carry us for the next 40 years. Right now, we’re having to put in temporary facilities, because we’re expanding.”

The mayor said the Foley Senior Center now has about 1,200 members and also needs a bigger building.

The city is studying the need for a performing art center. Hellmich said one location that has been suggested would be to renovate the current Foley Post Office for performing arts. 

He said the post office also needs a bigger facility, but the U.S. Postal Service’s current lease on the city-owned building does not expire until 2030.

“We need a performing arts center,” Hellmich said. “We would love to build a new post office and repurpose the current post office as a performing arts center. It would be perfect. It’s right in downtown Foley.”

The city also plans to extend more streets to improve north-south connectivity through Foley. 

One project would extend Pine Street south to Ninth Avenue. Hellmich said many drivers now use Oak Street as a shortcut, even though that route extends through residential areas.

Most of the Pine Street extension would follow a ditch that bypasses residential areas.

“There are no houses,” Hellmich said. “It does go by a park, but we’re going to have measures there, as we do at other parks to make sure people don’t speed. Then, we’ll be able to move traffic off other roads.” 

More extensions are also being studied for Pecan Street. In 2023, North Pecan was extended from East Peachtree Avenue south to East Fern Avenue. Continuing the extension would provide a route from the Foley Beach Express to U.S. 98.

In 2024, Foley extended Pecan Street south from U.S. 98 to Pride Drive.

The city is also developing plans to build a traffic circle at the intersection of West Michigan Avenue and South Cedar Street.