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___	.	_	___	The Slllfllcraltl	_ _	_ _____Bicentennial Edltton, July 4, 1976
Waveland:growing Coast city
ODELE H. PERANICH
Herald Bay Bureau
What began as a spar-sley settled retreat for wealthy residents of New Orleans in the middle 18th Century ultimately has grown into one of the most progressive small cities on the easy-living Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Waveland’s name connotes images of soft breezes and gently waves along a sandy
shoreline, and as consistently as the waves tickle at the white beaches bordering her southern shores, so has been her steady growth.
Chartered March 1888, Waveland elected her first mayor, L. H. Fairchild, and two aldermen, Alfred A. Ulman, a successful woolen miller, and Olus Bourgeois, town marshall.
Waveland’s charter was amended in 1890 to
include four wards, her present representation.
Originally operating under an aldermanic form of government with less than $1,000 monthly expenses, Waveland’s present costs, through 88 years of development, have increased in city expenses to $300,000 yearly and is still effectively and progressively managed by a mayor and four aldermen.
A town which began
with few citizens, one where eight votes meant an election victory, and kept up dirt and shell roads, has developed into a city which maintains some hundreds of paved streets and has reached more than 6,500 population.
Waveland began with one major business, a woolen mill owned and operated by Alfred A. Ulman, who was also a
one-time mayor of the city. Three years ago, Waveland issued a building permit for a $726,000 shopping center which encompasses 92,000 square feet of store space.
A $3.5 million sewer program was contracted in 1972 for some 43 streets for about 400 homes and 49 miles of gravity and force main sewer lines, providing for the first time, city
sewage for approximately 1,200 users.
In January 1974, Mayor John Longo signed Waveland’s portion of a contract for construction of a $1.2 million sewer treatment plant. The plant was accepted by the city on March 1, 1976 and was dedicated, along with a civic and cultural center and library, on July 3, as part of Waveland’s Bicentennial celebration.
The new community center was created from Waveland's elementary school built in the early 1930s.
It houses the Waveland branch of the city-county library and is used for civic and cultural activities for young and old.
Nicholson, Ulman, Fell, Conrad, Sears and
Coleman are among the names of Waveland streets which timelessly mark the history of Waveland and the men who held her initial years of development in their hands.
The one man whom Waveland held in her heart, however, was Mayor Garfield J. Ladner, administrator for 32 years and who gave 34 years of service to the city.
Hancock's assessment rising
MARIA WATSON Herald Bay Bureau Chief
Hancock County has come a long way since 1821, nine years after its organization, when one of the entries on the tax rolls assessed Ambrose Gaines $2.75 for 500 acres and a slave.
Today assessed valuation has topped $35 million, according to George Heitzmann, as-sessor-collector for the past 16 years.
Heitzmann said 1975 figures show the coun-ty's assessments reached $36.5 million.
“We’ll probably pick up another $2 million in fiscal year 1976,” he added.
Hancock County has
been growing at an average rate of $2-2.5 million annually during the past few years. The assessed valuation in 1974 was $34 million.
Although there were three major setbacks during the 1960s, growth has been steady, Heitzmann said.
In 1962, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration took over 141,000 acres, forcing the removal of 13,-500 acres within the site, about 3,500 acres outside, and 900 dwellings from the tax rolls.
Some 400 new homes were being built yearly in the affected area, Heitzmann said, but when NASA moved in with the Saturn rocket
test facility and its huge buffer zone, growth came to an abrupt halt. Fear that the buffer zone might be extended prevented people from building near the fringes, he said.
NASA’s entry all but obliterated such communities as Logtown, River Hills, Santa Rosa, Gainesville, Rogue Home Heights and Lake Pearlington.
Today, with the huge test stands silent and the concept of the NASA installation — now the National Space Technology Laboratories — changed to one of environmental research,the areas remain, wooded and overgrown, but not forgotten.
Ever so often, the board of supervisors adopts a standard resolution requesting the release of the buffer zone lands, but with construction of an Army ammunitions plant in the fee area still simmering on a back burner in Washington, i* is unlikely the properties will be opened up for development.
Heitzmann thinks Hancock County has overcome the loss of the acreage, as well as the severe blows dealt it by Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Hurricane Camille in 1969.
Low-lying areas at Ansley, East Ansley, Lakeshore and Clermont Harbor suffered
damage from the 1965 storm as did the North Bay section and Shoreline Park.
But it was Camille that caused the real trouble, Heitzmann said, estimating 2,700 homes affected by the violent storm either had to be removed from the rolls or adjusted.
About $1 million in assessments was lost in 1965 and $2.5 million in 1969.
The North Bay area and Shoreline Park were virtually wiped out, and what Betsy had spared at Lakeshore and Clermont Harbor, Camille ravaged.
Heavy business losses occurred along the Bay St. Louis beachfront
and Waveland's Coleman Avenue.
Seven years later, though, Heitzmann thinks “people have generally forgotten about Camille.”
Time has erased much of the concern associated with rebuilding in the devastated areas.
New homes are being constructed on the beachfront but Heitzmann said builders are planning according to the Southern Standard Building Code adopted on the Coast after Camille.
‘‘They’re not building on the ground anymore,” he noted.
Hancock Heights in Bay St. Louis is experiencing a ‘‘building bon-
anza,” said the tax assessor, and there are a number of new homes on the beach m Waveland.
‘‘When you leave the beach though, Waveland (construction) is almost dormant,” he said.
Diamondhead has the greatest growth potential in the county, Heitzmann thinks. With new units going in there for speculation, he said the community could boost assessments considerably.
A number of Naval Oceanographic Office families have settled in Diamondhead, Heitzmann said.
Construction along the beachfront in the Bay St. Louis business district is picking up again, too.
Two new establishments on the beach side should provide the impetus for further
least, buildings, are slated for construction at the head of Main Street, he said, an area that was swept clean by Camille.
The primary problem faced by businesses on the beachfront, however, is parking. Compliance with prescribed ratios is difficult to manage and, although parking on both sides of the Beach Road is permitted, the space is insufficient.
When Heitzmann first became associated with the tax assessor's office, as a deputy in 1948, county assessed valuation was $6.5 million.
During his 16 years in office, assessments have more than dou-Dled, while the tax rate has remained essentially the same.
“The only general increase has been from $8 to $10 on timber land.” said Heitzmann