We’re not big fans of unnecessary spending, whether the money in question is our own or the public’s money.

That is why we’re concerned that the City of Natchez continues to plug ahead with its plans to waste $100,000 of your tax dollars.

The funds are planned to pay a consultant to help create a recreation plan for the city.

We’re not talking about building a nuclear reactor or an atomic supercollider.

Obviously, few of us share the expert knowledge to plan any kind of highly technical, highly complex facility. But with the recreation plan, we’re mostly concerned with ball fields, bathrooms and the like.

Why don’t we ask the local recreation boards to simply visit a few similar recreation sites to get a few ideas?

Enough gas to get a small team of locals to and from a few of these facilities would cost far less than $100,000.

We’ve heard good things about sports facilities in both Magee and across the state line over in tiny Demopolis, Ala., though other fine examples certainly exist.

The city’s proposal has targeted April 1 as the date by which a plan of action should be set. We think having something in the works could be done much, much sooner than April Fool’s Day if we simply roll up our sleeves and listen to the folks who have been working on recreation in our community for years.

This isn’t rocket science; it’s recreation.

If we need a plan, why not start with someone else’s plan and modify it as needed to meet our own needs.

Going the route of a consultant is almost sure to be a time and money waster.

Do you know how many consultants it takes to change a light bulb? No one knows. They never finished the feasibility study.