Warren County is losing money this very second.

Right now, there are businesses that are interested in moving into the Port of Vicksburg. With sincere southern hospitality, we invite them to have a look our facilities but must tell them there’s no room at the proverbial inn.

“Our port is at capacity, so we are actually losing opportunities because we have nowhere to put anyone,” Port Commission director Wayne Mansfield said last week while stressing the importance of expanding the port.

It’s time for our port to expand so that our local economy can continue to grow.

Mansfield and other members of the Port Commission are rightly working on a plan to determine if expanding the current port site on Haining Road or building a second port is more feasible.

Expansion is bound to come with a hefty price tag but will be worth it if the correct number of industrial sites are put in.

About 2,000 people work in the 21 businesses and industries at the 422-acre site on Haining Road. The estimated payroll for jobs at the port is about $90 million. Imagine the local economic boom if our community could double the number of jobs and economic impact.

The Port of Vicksburg is an attractive place to put an industry. There is river, rail and interstate access, and the price of electricity here can’t be beat.

“From an industrial standpoint, Entergy has the lowest rates anywhere,” Mansfield said last week.

So why not just put more businesses in the Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex off Interstate 20 in Flowers?

Ceres has plenty of space — about 600 acres of open land — and is a fine place for certain types of business and industry. However, it’s lacking the rail and river access that an expanded or new port site would bring. This limits the types of businesses that are interested in the Ceres properties.

We shouldn’t forget about Ceres, but we shouldn’t forget about all the industries looking for prime port property.

Its time to expand our offerings to the business world. We can’t afford not to.