Gov. Haley Barbour said last week he wants the state Port of Gulfport to consider a southward expansion instead of the port’s plan to go west. And he expects a decision in “weeks, not months.”
Island View Casino executives have become the biggest critics of the port’s plan to expand west along the beachfront nearly to Broad Avenue. Such an expansion would put cargo vessels and shipping terminals between the resort and its view.
“There’s been some appropriate concern that you lose some beach, you have some dead water, and of course the Island View is worried about the aesthetics for their business establishment,” Barbour said during a meeting with the Sun Herald.