The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors is loosening its control over the Lowndes County Port while keeping some restrictions in place.
An amended resolution, approved unanimously with no discussion at the board’s Wednesday meeting, lifted the financial restrictions placed on the port earlier this year, but left limitations in place as to how land is handled.
In January the supervisors approved a resolution that required the port authority to get county approval of any contracts with a term greater than six months or involving more than $25,000. It also barred the port from making any land deals — including leases, options, sale or easements — without supervisors’ approval.
The measures were put into place because Steel Dynamics Inc. was considering buying about 90 acres of port land as part of a potential expansion. It secured an option on the land in 2022 when it announced a $2.5 billion project to build a flat-roll aluminum mill off of Charleigh D. Ford Jr. Drive and a biocarbon facility on Artesia Road.
The option would have expired in December 2024, but SDI backed out of the deal in late October after rail mergers made additional port facilities unnecessary.
“With them not exercising the option, we didn’t see any need to have any restrictions on the port’s day-to-day business,” President and District 2 Supervisor Trip Hairston said. “We did leave in place the restriction on conveyance of property or easements. That would go through our board, as well as theirs.”
Hairston said other potential deals are brewing at the port, and the county wants to make sure everyone is on the same page as far as the available acreage.
“We want to work together to determine the best use for the port, and we think we’ve got some good options on the table,” Hairston said. “We’re not going to release any of that information until we’re ready because we don’t want to have wishful thinking versus a real plan in place.”
Lowndes County Port Authority Director Will Sanders told The Dispatch on Wednesday morning he needs the flexibility to contract and spend money due to some large projects on the horizon.
“I’ve got two grants coming up,” Sanders said. “One is a $6.1 million federal grant, and the other is a $700,000 (Mississippi Department of Transportation) grant. We’re going to start having large expenditures for that and I didn’t want to come to the board of supervisors every time after my board approved it.”
The $6.1 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant is to construct rail lines at the West Bank Port on Old Macon Road, which will connect to an existing rail line that serves the SDI facility on Airport Road. The $700,000 grant from MDOT will upgrade docking infrastructure at the port.
The change “is good for the port,” Sanders said.
“It helps us do everyday business without being interrupted,” Sanders said.
The agreement does not have a sunset clause, Hairston said.
“If there’s any economic development movement at the port, somebody wants to buy land or have an easement or lease land, everybody will be fully informed,” Hairston said. “We don’t want someone to need to expand and find there’s something preventing that. We don’t want to cut our nose off to spite our face.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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