ORANGE BEACH – Most folks who call the Gulf Shores-Orange Beach area their home are relieved the summer of 2010 is finally over.

The “summer that wasn’t,” as one local man referred to it, happened thanks to over 200 million gallons of BP oil that spewed into the Gulf. The months-long disaster littered area beaches with tar balls, raised fears of inedible – or non-existent – Gulf seafood, and caused hundreds of thousands of uneasy beach goers to vacation elsewhere.

Local governments and tourism officials tried in vain all summer to convince potential vacationers that panicky media reports of inaccessible beaches and unsafe swimming conditions were wildly overblown. Still, families stayed away in droves.

“Overall, this summer was completely dead,” according to Ashley R., a bartender at a popular watering hole near the Florida state line. “Actually, it sucked. It really sucked.”

On the same day that a commission appointed by President Barack Obama reported that the federal government blocked the public release of so-called “worst-case” scenarios of the spill to the American public, locals here told The Post crews are still scooping tar balls off the beaches almost every day.

Men and women wearing reflective vests crisscrossed the beach just west of Perdido Key on Oct. 6, either in motorized carts or on foot. Many carried mesh bags and periodically stooped over to scoop up a small shovelful of sugar-white sand. In the parking lot of one state-owned beach, a convoy of heavy equipment, including front-end loaders, sat ready to roll into action.

“Yeah, the crews are still here almost every day,” Ashley said. “They usually get out early in the morning and remove the tar balls and whatever else washes ashore before anyone gets out there.”

Ashley said she has spent a large part of her time at work this year defending the volunteers who comb the beaches. As a native, she said she knows how stifling the summer sun can be on the Alabama Gulf coast.

“I’ve heard people complain that they see the workers only spend 15 minutes working and then take a break, but I told them if they don’t like how it’s being done then they ought to try it themselves; it’s hot out there,” Ashley said. “I think they’ve done a really good job of cleaning up the beaches. They’re beautiful right now.”

The Oct. 6 edition of the Mobile Press-Register reported that representatives from the South Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce met recently for a two-day conference. The gathering was billed as a way to help area leaders find ways to work together to promote the area, recruit beach goers to return to the area, and eventually recover financially from the BP spill.

“We will continue to use our collective intelligence, creativity and plain old hard work to get done what needs to be done for this region,” Chamber President Donna Watts said, according to the Press-Register.

The story referred to the Gulf Shores-Orange Beach area as “economic ground zero” of the spill. For certain, the disaster affected everyone even remotely connected to the tourism industry, the area’s lifeblood.

“The longest wait we had all summer for dinner was about 30 minutes,” said Angela J., a waitress at a popular seafood restaurant in Orange Beach. “Usually, the wait would be 2-3 hours.”

Angela said the fishing boats that line the docks at nearby Zeke’s Landing spent most of the summer hauling oil spill containment equipment into the Gulf in a desperate effort to block the flow of oil onto area beaches or into the Intracoastal Waterway.

“They’re mostly back to carrying fishermen now,” Angela said. “It looks like it’s beginning to pick back up again.”

A booking agent at Zeke’s confirmed that business is beginning to inch towards pre-spill levels for this time of year.

“We’ll have a boat going out trolling Friday morning,” she said. “But you better book it fast. We’ll probably fill up, thanks to the Shrimp Festival.”

The 39^th annual gathering in Gulf Shores celebrates seafood, arts and crafts and live music. It runs Oct. 7-10 and is expected to draw thousands.

But whether those vacationers will like what they see and decide to return to the Redneck Riviera in 2011 remains to be seen.

Many beachfront condominiums have already erected “oil/tar cleaning stations” alongside the outdoor showers near the gates their guests use to access the beachfront. Later this month, representatives from the Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center will conduct a one-day workshop to teach locals how to deal with any oil and tar balls that wash up on the beach.

“While we were happy to see the well declared dead,” the university's announcement in the Oct. 6 edition of the Baldwin Register reads, “there is an opportunity for weathered oil, tar balls and other materials to make contact with our shorelines.”

"Please report some good news," a maintenance staff employee at one beachfront condo said after answering a few questions. "We could really use it."

For the record, the shoreline at Orange Beach, Ala. on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010 was every bit as sugar-white, clean and beautiful as in all the years before a man-made calamity created the summer that never was.