Breakfast, barricades and annexation on the menu in Ocean Springs

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WLOX) -The hot topics at Wednesday’s Breakfast with the Mayor event in Ocean Springs included annexation, urban renewal, and Mardi Gras barricades.

First, annexation. If you’ve been following this story, Ocean Springs wants to annex some areas near Ocean Springs High School and some land north of Interstate 10 and Highway 57. However, the county is opposed to that.

“The city has not grown geographically in many, many years, and it’s just time to do it,” said Mayor Kenny Holloway. “When it’s all said and done, the tax increase in the annexed area is not going to be great at all. The documents have been filed in the court, and the hearings will begin in April.”

When it comes to urban renewal, Holloway talked about the work going on down on Front Beach with the sidewalks, the planned marina and the work coming to renovate the Gay Lemon Fields facility.

Now, to the barricades. They went out the Tuesday before the first Ocean Springs day parade, and some local merchants weren’t happy about it.

“They’re still staged. They will go up Friday morning at 7 a.m.,” Holloway said, “so we’ll put the no parking signs up, and we’ll just have them up one day.”

The Ocean Springs night parade begins at 7 p.m. Friday.

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