New Multi-Million Dollar Harbor Hopes to Revitalize Gulf Coast Town

A new multimillion dollar harbor is on its way to Bay St. Louis. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports on what impact that harbor will have on the hurricane devastated community.

Lee Seal, a member of the Bay St. Louis Harbor Committee is standing on what used to be one of the busiest corners in that city,

“I mean you can see right now, there is one business open on North Beach Boulevard, and there were maybe 20 other ones where there are nothing but slabs here now.”

Bay St. Louis was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, and the city's recovery has been slow. The new 13 million dollar harbor, funded through hurricane recovery Community Development Block Grants is expected to create hundreds of jobs, and create millions of dollars in revenue.

“It’s going to be the economic catalyst for bringing back downtown to where it was and where it should go for the future.”

Buzz Olsen is city planner for Bay St. Louis,

“This harbor is going to be the showpiece with the land side restaurants, the retail development. The city of Bay St.Louis will be the way it was pre-Katrina and better.”

Projects approved using CDBG money have included a new firehouse for Bay St. Louis, and city hall. But as Tish Williams, executive director of the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce says, this harbor will be just as important to getting the city back on track than any of those other projects,

“In order to rebuild a community you need all of the building blocks. You need housing, but then you also need all of the elements of a total community for it to be a truly vibrant community.”

The first phase of the harbor construction is expected to be completed by late 2011.