The Warren County Port Commission is seeking the help of a third party to find a new port/economic development director, board president Margaret Gilmer said.

Gilmer said the commission is considering two search companies but would not name them. The selected company, she said, would receive resumes and do the initial screening of applicants.

She said it would take about 10 to 12 weeks once a company was hired to recommend potential candidates.

And the new director’s job will focus primarily on economic development rather than running the port.

“We do have a contract with WATCO, which manages the port, (so) the actual management of it is not as important as the economic development of the port,” Gilmer said. “Keeping that communication open with the existing businesses there, asking them if they have the need to expand (and) to do it here.

“Taking time to look at the job, and realizing what we’ve got, in a company like WATCO that does what it does well, then it just surfaced as the economic development part of it to be the main focus.”

Gilmer’s comments followed a special Tuesday afternoon meeting of the commissioners with representatives from the Mississippi Development Authority and Entergy economic development representatives, who also discussed the duties of the new director.

Port commissioners have been developing a job description and revising the port director’s duties after former director Wayne Mansfield announced he was taking a position as president and chief executive officer of the Longview, Texas, Economic Development Corp., a job that pays him $138,000 a year. He started the job Aug. 1.

“This is a visible job opening,” Gilmer said. “So many people are interested in how we move forward. We’re getting a strong economic development person in.”

She said the emphasis on an economic development director was influenced by the results from an asset mapping by MDA that looked at the area’s strengths and weaknesses and where to improve.

“It became evident that economic development would be the forefront,” she said. “This port is economic development.

“That’s why it’s so hard to separate, because the port facilities are economic development as well. For a company to move there and then looks to expand, like Ergon does, is truly economic development, because they’re creating economic development as well because they’re hiring more people.”

Ed Gardner Jr., Entergy business and economic development director, recommended the commission hire an outside firm to help with the search for a new director.