As a licensed Realtor in Waveland and a marketing consultant that was hired to market downtown Pass, Christian in ‘94, Old Town and Ocean Springs before Cruising ‘96+, and downtown Gulfport in July of 2005, I appreciate the actions of Mayor Mike Smith and the current city council for their current economic plans for downtown. Before bashing economic foolishness of a downtown incubator building, I must praise former Mayor Longo and the council of 2005 that both published warnings of potential flooding and hurricanes in the June edition of Hancock Reporter.

I’ve given it much thought after 24 years of research concerning the independent small businesses and tourism and have concluded that the best solution would be to begin with selling the incubator building to the State Jaycees to manage, Junior Chamber ages 21-40, with a mission to establish a Hancock County Jaycees in downtown Waveland.

As an officer in the Hattiesburg Jaycees in college, I learned how to work with event planners to make an event go smooth. We helped and honored the police, schools, fire department in the Jaycee Building and hosted parades in downtown and Christmas parade, before delivering our fund raising to non profits like Toys for Tots, Red Cross, etc.

Our city should owner finance that building to the Jaycees with an agreement pay assume up to 80% of balance after a rental income toward the note in exchange for the minutes to at least 24 meetings per year. Remember, “idle hands are the devils workshop,” and there are no better words to memorize for a theme of life than the Jaycee Creed. We should be willing to pay respect to our younger crowd in slow moving world. Let’s give to the young, and watch them restore hope.

Henry Ward

www.mississippigulfcoastmap.com
Realtor@tourismeconomy.com