A number of bills related to local issues died this week in the Legislature before being voted out of committee, but one is still alive and &045; we hope &045; kicking.

A Senate bill which would provide up to $1 million for renovations to the century-old Historic Natchez Foundation building would be a wonderful help to our community’s continued efforts to keep Natchez history intact.

The funds would help establish a museum in the building and also would help build a climate-controlled document storage facility there.

With all of our antebellum mansions and other extant structures, Natchez has no general museum for our precious artifacts and other historical items. That means some residents are donating their artifacts to other institutions outside our community &045; meaning we are losing some of Natchez’s history.

There is not better entity than the Historic Natchez Foundation to take care of our history and our historic artifacts &045; and we hope lawmakers recognize the importance of this money.