Barges are moored in the Yazoo Diversion Canal of the E.W. Haining Industrial Center this morning.(Melanie Duncan ThortisThe Vicksburg Post)

Lease prices for land owned by the Warren County Port Commission along the Yazoo Diversion Canal and used by companies to moor barges will increase following action taken by commissioners Monday.

Also during their meeting, members dealt with a road project at the Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex and approved selling a small tract at the Flowers facility to a local company for a liquefied petroleum gas storage tank.

Longtime “tenants” under mooring leases include Magnolia Marine Transportation, Ergon General Store, Big River Shipbuilding and Patton-Tully Transportation Co.

Patton-Tully’s leases have been taken over by divisions of Ergon Inc., the Jackson-based petroleum company that is also the parent of Magnolia Marine and Ergon General Store. The old leases were for sums of $2.99 per foot of waterfront to $6.75 per foot. All of the leases will go to $6.75 per foot, and the board instructed Executive Director Jimmy Heidel to write letters to Ergon and Big River explaining the changes.

On a motion from member Oren Bailess, the commission voted to rescind approval of a payment of $101,000 to Champion Excavators for work on the road built to link the new Mississippi National Guard building to other Ceres roads. The board decided it wanted to withhold all payments to the company, including another bill for $17,000 pending contact by board attorney J. Mack Varner with the company that wrote Champion’s performance bond.

The sale of about 1.5 acres was to Waring Oil Co. pending polling of members H.N. “Hal” Gage and John Ferguson, who were absent.

The land is on the south side of Interstate 20 across from the main part of the Ceres complex, and the purchase price would be based on a price of $15,000 per acre.