Attracting Tourists

In this time of economic struggles, Mississippi is looking at outside-the-box ways of bringing more revenue into the state. This weekend the Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural Center is putting on a two day art retreat with the help of a grant from the Mississippi Development Authority.

Pat Odom is hoping to help people discover their artistic passion with her stenciling class. The Art By the Sea retreat also offers an opportunity for participants to try out everything from jewelry making. to working with fused glass so people can see what they're good at.

"It's very eclectic and people like that simply because some students are going to excel in one media where not in another," said Odom. "They're going to be well rounded when they leave because there are so many exciting things going on."

The Mary C. O'Keefe received an MDA Creative Economy grant to put on the retreat.

Retreat Director Anita Nobles-Arguelles said, "I think it's important for MDA and other organizations to look at other possible revenues in the state of Mississippi. Supporting the creative economy feeds the state in two different ways. It feeds our artists and the communities that support the artist by providing a revenue stream for them. It also draws tourism into the state and sets some of our towns up as art communities which means people travel here to take classes and learn new techniques."

"Our first one is kind of a local regional attack but on subsequent Art By The Sea Retreats, we hope to be looking at more of a national audience," said Nobles-Arguelles. "There are tribes that travel all over the country that do these types of retreats. That feeds our tourism, hotels, feeds our restaurants and puts Ocean Springs on the map as an extension of our art community."

Participants enjoyed the chance to explore so many art forms in one backdrop.

"Things I would have never picked up on my own and are just a tiny bit too esoteric to get out of a book or a magazine," said Pat Sharpe, participant.

..read more at www.WLOX.com

Black Spring Break

Law enforcement officers are closely monitoring the traffic along Highway 90 in Biloxi and Gulfport. On Friday, they made final preparations for the arrival of what could be tens of thousands of Spring Break visitors. Extra sets of eyes will be watching the activities from the ground and in the air.

Biloxi Police officers and Harrison County deputies spent Friday setting up a command center on the south side of Edgewater Mall. A dozen ATVs are in place and supplies continued to arrive.

"We're just to going to keep an eye on things and we have all the equipment in place to respond for traffic needs and crowd issues and whatever else may happen," said Jim Adamo with the Biloxi Police Department.

Inside the mobile command center, officers will use some high-tech gadgets to get a bird's eye view of spring break activities this weekend. Six cameras are mounted on the unit, including two that can go 56-feet in the air.

"They do a 360 degree and I can zoom in and read the tag numbers," explained Walter Pitts with the Harrison County Sheriff's Department.

A helicopter camera can feed live video from 13-miles away. There's also a radio system, dispatch center, video conferencing room, and an outdoor work station.

This year, there's a new addition to the mobile fleet: his and hers portable bathrooms. The unit will come in handy, because extra Biloxi officers will be on duty, along with 60 Harrison County sheriff's deputies. They plan to enforce parking, traffic, and other safety rules.

"Five or 10 cars stopping for five or ten seconds causes a lot of traffic delays. So the first thing we would do is close off the turnaround points to make sure people move constantly east and west," said Adamo.

Police expect heavy traffic to be concentrated between DeBuys Road and Rodenburg Avenue.

"It's going to be play it by ear, monitor the activity, and respond accordingly. We want to make sure that everybody is safe," said Adamo.

The officers are prepared to work longer hours if needed. And they expect to be on duty through Sunday afternoon.

WLOX.com - The News for South Mississippi

Storm Line

Storm line

A storm moved through with strong winds, lightening and tornadoes.

Temperatures will cool off which is good because it was very humid the last few days.

Wind!

On April 3rd we had front move through. They said it would be windy but I don't think they even expected the wind we had. It was very windy for over an hour. I think we got into the 60mph winds. It knocked our patio chair around. Trees went down and some lost electricity.

Boats were damaged and any activities that used canopies were destroyed.
Sand was all over Hwy 90.