by Calvin Ishee
In spite of an “action packed” schedule, Mayor McDermott made time for the very popular Gazebo Gazette feature, “A Minute With The Mayor”. Although we roamed through many issues, the bulk of our time centered on several of the top issues facing the City of Pass Christian.
GG: What are the major issues facing the City and how can we deal with them?
Mayor: #1 has to be the federally mandated elevation requirements for building construction. It’s very expensive for builders to construct new homes and businesses due do EPA and FEMA requirements. Because of Hurricane Katrina, new buildings must be elevated off of the ground which greatly increased construction costs. Furthermore, this has driven up insurance costs as well. We will continue to work with federal agencies to make sure new building requirements are fair and reasonable.
#2 is making sure we keep the businesses we currently have while also working to attract more businesses. That’s why I’m constantly promoting “buy local buy often”. In order to keep businesses here in the Pass, we need to totally support our businesses by making them our “first choice” for making purchases. Some of our businesses struggle during the week and we need to encourage folks to visit them. We are truly fortunate to have great support from our businesses but if we want to keep them, we have to buy from them.
The conversation led to briefly talking about Pass Christian Main Street, 2019 Cruisin’ the Coast, 2019 Flood Insurance Audit, competing with local cities for Law Enforcement Officers as well as various other issues, however you’ll have to keep following the Gazebo Gazette for updates on these issues. Have a question for the Mayor that you may want asked in the next interview, please email them to editor@thegazebogazette.com.
