New piers, boat slips in the works
RIDGELAND — Three new covered piers, 90 boat slips, and a brand-new restaurant are coming to the Main Harbor Marina in Ridgeland by next spring.
Marina boat slip holders learned about the possibility for the piers, slips and restaurant in a letter dated July 27 from Michael Stuart, interim manager of Main Harbor Development LLC and leaseholder.
John Sigman, general manager of the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District, said in an Aug. 24 letter posted to the Main Harbor Marina website that no location maps have been submitted for the restaurant. He said Main Harbor Development hopes to have it completed sometime in the spring of 2022.
“There has been a restaurant in every conceptual plan, but I don’t think they are far enough along where they know if it would serve seafood or hamburgers,” Sigman said.
Stuart’s letter detailed plans to close the Marina parking lot adjacent to the “E” pier for site work from August through October. Temporary parking is on the south side of the lot near the Smith Marine Building. The lot will stay closed as part of a nearly $1 million environmental cleanup project expected to start sometime this fall on the site where the Dock once served food in the day and drinks at night.
“The remediation project has not yet started because a power line must be relocated first,” Sigman said. “We are unable to give a date on when that will be done.”
Main Harbor Development discovered the need for remediation earlier this year when soil testing revealed gasoline, despite the removal of gasoline tanks in the late 1980s and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s confirmation at the time that the site was clean, Sigman’s letter states.
The construction of three new covered piers, one on the south side of the E pier and two on the north side, for a total of 90 new slips, are currently under evaluation, according to Stuart’s letter. His letter informed slip holders that as current slip rental agreements expire each slip holder must execute a new slip rental agreement form that may include a slight rental increase.
“Main Harbor Development holds the lease on the pier and can certainly raise slip rental if it so chooses. They have a right to do that,” Sigman said.
Slip holders who have not provided proof of insurance coverage as required by their slip rental agreements will find their agreements terminated and will have to vacate their slips. “Failure to vacate promptly will result in the vessels being removed from the harbor,” the letter said.
Main Harbor Marina has declined to comment further.
For more information on the Main Harbor Marina, visit their website at https://mainharbormarina.com/ or call them at 601-856-5399.