Today, remembering just how far the Vidalia Riverfront Development has come in the last 15 years or so is pretty difficult.

We’ve become accustomed to the beautiful walking paths that give residents and visitors alike a beautiful view of the mighty Mississippi River flowing swiftly past.

When the ribbon was officially cut in 1999, former Vidalia Mayor Sidney Murray Jr. dedicated the project to the residents of Vidalia, particularly the ones who lived through the town literally picking itself up and moving back from the river’s edge to allow the channel to be widened and the levees to be built.

Murray and other Vidalia leaders had a vision for turning the then barren, mostly dusty riverfront into something beautiful and something for citizens to enjoy.

They’ve managed to do that with spades.

The City of Vidalia is working on taking the Riverwalk and giving it new life soon, by making the walking and jogging path not simply dead-end at the northern and southern points.

Plans call for the existing walkway to be turned into a loop, connected the current ends to one another by way of the top of the levee.

Provided Vidalia can manage the financing of the project, we applaud the effort.

Like the Natchez Trails project on the opposite side of the river, after decades of not taking maximum advantage of our area’s greatest geographic assets, the area is now poised to put its best foot forward.