The Hancock County Board of Supervisors on June 16 approved payment of DACA claims for the Port of Harbor totaling $1,184,428.92 and accepted the Hancock Airport and Harbor Commission's adoption of FY2025 Budget Amendment No. 2, which reflects a total budget figure of $66,105,010 and an overall increase of approximately $430,261.

Blaine, representing Fort Harbor, told supervisors Amendment No. 2 responds to an earlier runway failure and related closure that reduced fuel-flow revenues, unanticipated lease renewals and a decline in charges-for-service revenue. Blaine said the amendment offsets a roughly $50,000 reduction in adopted revenue and notes a larger fall in charges for services tied to lower post-Katrina activity levels at the port.

Blaine also said Fort Harbor will attempt to close on a vacant manufacturing property referred to in the meeting as the "trash doctor's property" by June 18 and plans to redevelop it once acquired. Separately, Fort Harbor staff described an ongoing effort to sell a formerly manufactured facility (referred to in the meeting as the "0.8 facility") to a private ownership group with an anticipated closing around August, and said the commission expects to include approximately $1.9 million in FAA construction grants in a future Amendment No. 3.

The board voted 5-0 to approve the port claims and certified the Harbor Commission's budget amendment. Supervisors asked county staff to follow up with the port commission on real estate closing dates and to include FAA grant awards in the next proposed amendment to the Harbor Commission budget.

No additional conditions or changes to the legal status of port assets were adopted at the meeting; the board's votes accepted the claims and the commission's submitted budget amendment as presented.