A record-breaking Cruisin’ the Coast – 6,000 registered cars, 4,000 at this week’s Downtown Biloxi Block Party – heads into its final weekend, with plenty of entertainment and cruisin’ still on tap.
The stage at Edgewater Mall in west Biloxi will feature Na Na Sha, Garry Wesley as Elvis, and Darlawan on Saturday, with row after row of cars in the mall’s west parking lot.
Elsewhere on the cruisin’ schedule, you’ll find the Beach Boys at the Beau, Don Williams at the IP, and Nervous Presley at the Hard Rock center bar.
Expect delays on U.S. 90 throughout the weekend, and increased traffic on Irish Hill and Pass Roads.
Cruisin’ info: To see the complete Cruisin’ schedule of entertainment and other info about “America’s largest block party,” click here.
Weekend lineup: To see the overall entertainment schedule for this weekend, plus the October-December schedule of special events, all courtesy of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau,
click here.
Mayor’s health fair is Saturday at Edgewater Mall
The annual Mayor’s Disability Awareness Health Fair takes place Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Edgewater Mall, in the south mall foyer.
The free fair will offer vision screening by the Biloxi Lions Club, other health screenings, an entertainment stage, free face-painting, arts and crafts for children, and a wealth of information and health resources.
The fair is coordinated by the city and Disability Connections, and is sponsored by United Healthcare, Edgewater Mall, Biloxi Regional Medical Center, and IP Casino Resort Spa.
To print a flyer about the fair, click here.
City Council to meet twice Tuesday
The Biloxi City Council will meet at its regular time – 1:30 – on Tuesday afternoon, and will meet again immediately afterward to fast track several issues.
Those issues include approval of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino’s proposed 12-story hotel tower, and a proposed 40-lot subdivision, Live Oak, on Brodie Road. Ordinances require readings in two meetings, which typically requires two weeks. Councilmembers, instead, are conducting back-to-back meetings.
Also on the agenda for the 1:30 meeting is approval of more than $120,000 in funding for social-service and non-profit agencies.
Agendas: To see the agendas, resolutions and supporting documents for the council meetings on Tuesday, click here.
Hard Rock background: For background on the Hard Rock’s proposed hotel tower, including a virtual tour and photos from the presentation to the City Council in July, click here.
Discretionary spending: To see the list of agencies and funding in the municipal budget for FY 2013, and how those agencies were funded in last year’s budget, known as the “non-departmental budget,” click here.
See the ward lines, comment on Tuesday
The city on Tuesday will hold the first of two scheduled public hearings to seek input on the proposed ward lines for the 2013 municipal elections. The hearing will be included in the 1:30 p.m. council meeting.
The maps, incidentally, can be viewed in detail at several locations: The Innovation Center on Popp’s Ferry Road; the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Municipal Building; the Donal Snyder Community Center;
Fire Station No. 8, which is on Woolmarket Road;
City Hall;
Main Biloxi Library;
Lopez-Quave Public Safety Center;
the Margaret S. Sherry Memorial Library, Popp’s Ferry Road; and the
West Biloxi Branch Library, which is on Pass Road.
For background on the issue, and to see the maps online, click here.
Holloway to retirees: ‘We’re not antiques, we’re classics’
Mayor A.J. Holloway welcomed a group of “fellow retirees” on Wednesday when Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Institute for Lifelong Learning toured Biloxi.
“I like to think of myself as a living example of what you can do when you are retired,” Holloway told the group of about three dozen from throughout south Mississippi during a luncheon at Mary Mahoney’s Old French House Restaurant. “In fact, I’ve been retired for a couple of years now — on paper, anyway.”
Holloway, who had paid into the state retirement system for more than 30 years, began drawing retirement pay a couple of years ago, which reduced his annual $115,000 mayoral salary by about 75 percent.
“And let me say one more thing about this age thing,” the mayor declared to the retirees: “You and me are like the cars in Cruisin’ the Coast. We’re not antiques; we’re classics.”
The group then screened two videos, a 17-minute report from February of this year about Biloxi’s progress, and a clip of “I Wanna Come Home,” a song written and performed by local community theater standout Ronny Broussard during the city’s annual Katrina memorial observance.
Video report: To see the 17-minute video, originally shown at the State of the City address, click here.
Broussard opus: To see the Ronny Broussard’s performance of “I Wanna Come Home,” which the mayor said had his wife “crying for two days,” click here.
News and notes
Homecoming: Biloxi Indians have their homecoming football game this evening, against St. Martin. The game begins at 7, but presentation of the homecoming court begins at 6:30. For more on the affair, including news about the award-winning Biloxi High School marching band, click here.
Webcasting: Edgewater Mall Manager Terry Powell and Mall Marketing Manager Michelle Rogers guest on this week’s City Desk webcast. The topics: Cruisin’s impact on the mall, plus a look into the phenomenal year the mall is having. To listen to the 14-minute program, click here.
Butch Oustalet, Regardless: Biloxi First has an Oct. 16 reservation deadline for the upcoming roast of automobile magnate Butch Oustalet. For background on the benefit for the Biloxi public education foundation, click here.
