The Dixie Youth World Series in Jackson, Tenn. &045; in which a Natchez team participated last weekend &045; is expected to bring $1.5 million into that community this week.

That sounds like a pretty good reason for Natchez and Adams County to look closely at updating their recreation facilities.

For the past year, a volunteer board &045; now a commission &045; has been studying recreation alternatives for the area. That commission, which has now delayed a vote on a bond issue to pay for new recreation facilities, needs $62,000 from city, county and school governments in order to operate for the next year or so.

Small investment when you consider that one major event hosted at state-of-the-art baseball fields, for example, could attract. That’s money that would be spent in a variety of places, bringing revenue to individual businesses as well as to local governments through sales taxes.

While it was all but impossible for the commission not to delay a referendum on the bond issue, doing so risks losing whatever momentum had been built up to this point.

And a slow economy won’t do much to help that momentum now.

Still, we continue to support the initiative to improve recreation facilities. While it can be difficult to understand why spending money can make money, this is a classic case in which an investment will bring big dividends &045; in the form of economic benefits and quality of life.

The next 12-15 months will be a crucial time for the recreation commission to plan and to persuade. We urge voters to pay attention to the benefits of an investment in our recreation facilities &045; and we urge them to give their ideas to the commission as well.