Life’s a Beach

Hancock County

Hancock County’s beaches will soon get rejuvenated thanks to the Pass Christian Harbor expansion project and the board of supervisors agreed Monday that, yes –this time – Lakeshore will also benefit.
Beginning next week, nearly 350,000 cubic yards of sand will be pumped more than seven miles underwater from the Pass Harbor project directly to Bay St. Louis. The move is being paid for through $5 million from a BP grant. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock of Chicago is the contractor doing the actual work.
At its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, the board assured District 1 Supervisor David Yarborough that Lakeshore would get sand, as well.
“Let’s get the sand pumped at Lakeshore,” Yarborough said, reiterating remarks he made at the board’s previous meeting in February.
At that meeting, he asked why the sand coming to the county from the dredging project was being pumped in at the Washington Street Pier in Bay St. Louis, rather than at Lakeshore.
District 4 Supervisor Steve Seymour said that it was because it was closer, easier and cheaper for the contractors to start the project in Bay St. Louis, and since the county is getting nearly $4 million worth of sand free, then no one should complain.
“If you ride through Lakeshore in the summer time,” Yarborough said later, “you’ll see that other than Nicholson Ave., Lakeshore is probably the most used beach there is, and it’s only right that we fix it.
“My concern is, the last time we had dredging done in Hancock County, they ran out of sand before it got to Lakeshore. I’m no fool, it’s gonna happen again.”
However, the board passed a resolution Monday ensuring that Lakeshore’s beach will be replenished, no matter where the sand from the Pass Harbor project is pumped.

By Geoff Belcher

The Sea Coast Echo