Plan is to clean it up, tear it down

This probably won't get printed, because editors usually cut out things like this, but here it goes:

Hardly a day goes by without someone calling Sound Off and daring the Sun Herald to print their opinion or others saying "I bet my comment" spends eternity in a dark basement with thousands of other Sound Off rejects, instead of being printed in the A-2 column.

Some callers suggest the newspaper has a personal grudge against them -- even though the calls are made anonymously -- such as in the recent call regarding the old Best Western Hotel property on the beach in Gulfport.

"I am sure this won't be printed because you never print anything I call in, but here it goes: I think everyone in Gulfport knows who owns that property downtown on the beach that was the Best Western Hotel by the power company," the caller said.

It's unclear whether the caller was hinting at the prominent Salloum family, which owns several prime pieces of Coast real estate, including, at one time, the old Best Western property.

However, the family recently sold the beachfront land to the state Department of Transportation, which is buying property along the route of a potentially elevated roadway linking the state port to Interstate 10 through downtown.

Southern District Transportation Commissioner Wayne Brown has said MDOT is "only buying property from willing sellers."

With public support for a raised connector at an all-time low and changes to the South Mississippi landscape since Katrina, MDOT officially placed the downtown project on hold earlier this year. The agency said it could be six or seven years before it even considers that part of the plan again.

"Why hasn't anybody said anything about that mess?" the Sound Offer asked. "When they have dogged everybody else about cleaning up and moving their FEMA trailers, and the people who have the money to clean up aren't. They are weighing all their many options."

Brown said MDOT has received a contract to have the building demolished, but he said, "Unfortunately, I think there are some people living in it and under the law, we have to give them time to find other arrangements."

So when will MDOT get to cleaning the land? "The sooner the better, is my answer to that question," Brown said.