DIAMONDHEAD — Starting a city isn’t easy, and it most certainly isn’t fast.

That’s being realized in this Hancock County community, where a drive began back in 2006 to incorporate as a city.

After many months of preparation, debate, research and public meetings, a petition for incorporation was filed in July 2008 with the Hancock County Chancery Clerk’s office. Then, last January, a day-long court hearing was held on the merits of incorporation.

Chancery Court Judge Kennie Middleton ended the hearing by announcing he would issue a ruling in 10 days.

No ruling has appeared. “We haven’t heard anything yet,” Hancock Chancery Clerk Tim Kellar said Thursday.

A spokesperson in Middleton’s office said he was not in this week and was not available for comment. However, she said, the judge has not yet ordered anything for filing in the case.

Waiting more than six months for an anticipated 10-day ruling has pro-incorporation forces concerned. After all, an interim mayor and City Council have already been selected and named to serve until a regular election can be scheduled for a new City of Diamondhead.

“We are anxiously awaiting the decision, that’s for darn sure,” interim Mayor Chuck Ingraham said Thursday.

Jerry Mills, a Ridgeland attorney representing the incorporation petitioners, could not be reached for comment.

State law requires that areas seeking incorporation gather sufficient numbers of names on a petition, then file in Chancery Court. Actually, though, it took some doing to get the Diamondhead case before a judge in the first place.

All the Chancery judges in the 8th District, which covers Hancock County, recused themselves from the case. At the time, Kellar said that’s not unusual, since local judges don’t want to hear incorporation cases that tend to have heavy political overtones.

Eventually, Judge Middleton, of Mississippi’s 17th Chancery Court District in Natchez, was appointed to hear the case. By the time he did so in January of this year, the incorporation petition had already been on file for more than five months.

Proponents of cityhood have ambitious plans for their proposed municipality. Aside from an incorporation lawyer, they already hired an urban planner, put together projected revenues and expenditures, and announced they would seek a professional city manager.

But they did encounter some resistance from a small number of Diamondhead head residents who maintained that incorporation is burdensome and unnecessary.

Diamondhead, an area with about 9,000 residents, has a growing commercial district, a country club, golf courses and swimming pools. If incorporated, it would become the largest, and likely the wealthiest, city in Hancock County.

Nobody wants to complain publicly about their long wait, but for now, the anxiety level is rising for municipal hopefuls in the possible City of Diamondhead.

“We really hope to have some positive news soon,” Ingraham said.