The fight to block a state plan to widen Port Gibson’s historic Church Street and keep it as a highway thoroughfare has gone global via an Internet petition.

Since the site launched about three weeks ago, the effort to keep the Mississippi Department of Transportation from plowing through the town of about 2,000, has heightened.

“In the beginning, we said we were not going down without a fight,” said Jane Ellis, chairman of the Port Gibson Heritage Trust’s Highway 61 committee. “And, we still feel that way.”

The number of signatures has increased on a minute-by-minute basis in a climb to reach the goal of 2,500. The petition, which is at www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-port-gibson-mississippi was created by Keith Turner, an environmental lawyer for the committee hired to help overturn MDOT’s decision. The petition had 1,743 signatures this morning. Committee members will present the petition, along with letters of support the committee has been collecting, to MDOT officials before the first sign of work begins. No deadline has been set to reach the petition goal, Ellis said.

Last month, highway officials revealed plans to upgrade more than 5 miles of Church Street, which is also U.S. 61, to extend the existing four-lane. MDOT’s work to complete the redesign of U.S. 61 between Vicksburg and Natchez – Port Gibson is about midway – has been in progress for about 20 years. It is part of a state initiative to build 1,077 miles of four-lane highway. The portion of U.S. 61 through or around Port Gibson is the last link and the most challenging.

Kevin Magee, a district engineer for MDOT, said plans to pursue the “through route” along the current stretch of U.S. 61 are still in play.

“We have not made any significant steps yet, but that is still our plan,” he said. “We still think coming through the town at the present location of 61 is the best way to connect the two ends.”

Magee doesn’t feel opposition to the plan or the petition will impede the agency. The plan, after no consensus could be reached on bypasses east or west, at one time had the backing of officials at City Hall and the Claiborne Courthouse. Today, many local officials have changed their views or been replaced. Another foe is Central District Highway Commissioner Dick Hall, who has jurisdiction in the area, but who has been overruled by commissioners from North and South districts of the state.

“We still don’t feel there will be a significant change on that stretch of 61 they call Church Street,” he said.

Many in opposition to MDOT’s plan desire to see a bypass created east of the town, a move that Ellis has said would create more industry in the area. The notion that more business could be brought in if a new road is created is a point that won over the Claiborne County Board of Supervisors earlier this month.

“We have to finalize our plan and we’ll employ consultants to do that. I’d say that’s the next step,” he said. “Usually it takes a year to 18 months to acquire right of way.”

Ellis, who said she’s not surprised by the large number of people against MDOT’s plan, indicated she and her group will continue to fight until then.

“More and more people here are realizing it’s real – it’s here – and they’re getting their heads out of the sand,” she said.

A local survey of properties, performed by Port Gibson residents Shirley and Willie Daigle, showed that 65.8 percent of the city’s businesses would be affected or destroyed by MDOT’s plan, Ellis said.