The City of Natchez faces a daunting task. The very thing that makes the city so attractive for the thousands of annual visitors — the city’s historic roots — also makes operating the city a costly endeavor.

Like the socialite who must keep up with the proverbial Joneses, Natchez has to spend a pretty penny just to maintain its status quo quality of life.

Old streets, water, drainage and other infrastructure systems combined with a shrinking population are a recipe for financial trouble.

For the last few years, Natchez has been fortunate to be in a position to spend a portion of its casino windfall on fixing some of its crumbling streets.

This year, the city is poised to spend $600,000 on streets, with the funding coming from the $1 million annual lease payment for that casino property at the foot of Roth Hill Road.

The city has spent similar amounts over the last two years and the work has helped a little, though a number of areas of the city still show significant needs and the city may be in a position now where the amount of maintenance required is beyond handling a little bit here and a little bit there. A major overhaul may be required.

We’d love for the city leaders to sit down and build out a plan of what they’d like the city to be in 10 or 20 years.

What would it take to truly repair the city’s streets and keep a pool of money available annually to keep them all in good order? What about the areas of the city in which sidewalks have crumbled away?

If we don’t start planning for the future, we’ll continue to flounder around from year to year with little changing, but the city’s age gains strength by the day.