VIDALIA — When Vidalia Mayor Buz Craft was running for office, he admits, like some residents, the feasibility of the Port of Vidalia was a concern of his.

After more than half a year in office, Craft said he is now on board with the approximately $40 million, 145-acre port project, which is approximately 80-percent grant funded.

“I think it opens up another avenue for (companies) to do business,” Craft said. “Combined with our municipal complex, our recreational complex, our riverfront, our services and our clean water, I think this is a great area for people to come and start a business and provide jobs, a great place to raise a family.”

Craft said additionally with the Concordia Parish School District trending upward and rail on the Natchez side of the Mississippi River, Vidalia checks off a lot of the boxes businesses look for now in locating in a community, and when the port opens and is fully operational, one more big box will be checked.

“We are in a unique situation, and we need to sell ourselves,” Craft said. “I consider myself very fortunate and lucky to have been born and raised here in the Miss-Lou.  I want to be a part of seeing this place take the next step.”

Port of Vidalia Director Wyly Gilfoil said he hopes to have the port open mid-year 2018.

Thus far, approximately $7 million has been spent in building the road leading to the riverbank and into the Vidalia Industrial Park, along with an embankment levee, Gilfoil said.

Over the next year to 18 months, the port will spend another $9 to $10 million on projects currently under design, Gilfoil said. The port will add an electrical extension and the loading facility conveyor.

Trucks will be able to turn around and dump into a conveyor that will bring dry goods such as grain out to a T-dock in the river.

Gilfoil said during the initial stages, the port would not support liquid loads, but the design includes supports strong enough to handle a liquid line if demand exists. Gilfoil said adding a liquid line, including the tanks, would cost approximately $1 million.

Gilfoil said tenants have expressed an interest in using the port facility, and he said for area farmers, it provides another option that could help them go direct to market. With farm goods and other goods coming in, as well, Gilfoil said the competition would end up producing better prices.

Over the next three to five years, the port will reach its approximately $40 million total in the slack water slip phase, which still has to be approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Gilfoil said initial discussion about the slips with the Corps has been favorable in broad terms.

The slack water slip would enable traffic to not have to deal with the river current, and allow for the port to create more loading and unloading mechanisms, depending on market demand, Gilfoil said.

“Some companies want complete control of their own facilities and are unwilling to get into a queue like you have to do for a public facility,” Gilfoil said. “In other words, it will be up to them to build their own loading facility and they would pay a lease to the Port of Vidalia for use of that site.”

While Gilfoil said the Port of Vidalia and the Natchez-Adams County Port would end up competing on specific projects, but overall having two ports in the area will be a boon to the Miss-Lou.

“If you compete on a specific project, say a pellet firm comes to Natchez and also looks at locating in Vidalia,” Gilfoil said. “If the firm choses between either one, the other one has not lost anything because the whole area is going to benefit.”

Gilfoil said Natchez-Adams County has a great history and a lot to offer, and the Port of Vidalia will add a slack water element to the community, which may help attract additional business.

“It is about increasing the size of the pie in the area,” Gilfoil said. “That is the whole idea behind the Miss-Lou region.”

Craft said he agreed the Port of Vidalia would be a benefit for the region, not just Vidalia.

“It is the same philosophy in us being a part of Natchez, Inc.,” Craft said. “Any industrial gain on either side of the river helps the region as a whole.

“Every morning, that bridge is full of people going to Natchez, and also full of people coming to Vidalia, either to work, play or shop.”

Another benefit that could impact prices and wear and tear on the roads, Gilfoil said, is the logistics professionals in Houston, Baton Rouge and New Orleans have begun to work out the logistics of moving containers like you see on 18-wheeler trucks along the river.

It had been tried before, but Gilfoil said what happened was only single movement, where a large amount of empty containers would end up stuck in Memphis.

Trucks would still be needed for the last mile, Gilfoil said, but with fewer trucks along the road, governments would have to spend less repairing highways.

“Obviously, delivery times are slower on the waterway, but once that pipeline is started that problem would be worked out,” Gilfoil said. “What it would ultimately mean for people is the cost of their products would be cheaper by reducing the cost of transportation.”

Gilfoil said the port would also help enable Vidalia to create an industrial megasite.

“This area, with the proximity to rail in Natchez, four-lane highways, a lot of space to work with and the proximity to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, there are a lot more industrial type prospects that you can look at,” Gilfoil said. “The state has even talked about megasites. I happen to think this site is just as good a megasite as any in the state.”

Craft said if Vidalia is serious about economic development, the possibility of doing business with the world has to be opened up, which a port along the Mississippi River provides.

He said the port may not have a major impact on the area during his time as mayor, but thinking long-term, it could be a big boon.

“You have to have a vision for the future, just like Sidney Murray had a vision for the Hydroelectric Plant,” Craft said. “Here we are years later, and we are about to see a big benefit.

“The same thing applies here, you have to look to the future and not just immediately where we sit and prepare for a way for big things to happen.”