Group meeting is a must. Now.

Published 12:00 am Thursday, April 23, 2009

Natchez city leaders have said they want to meet with the county to discuss the future of economic development.

Adams County leaders — at least initially — expressed an interest in doing the same.

Members of the Natchez-Adams Economic Development Authority have said they would be happy to participate.

Email newsletter signup

The community just received a report from a high-dollar expert study that essentially said “work together.”

So why haven’t all the sides met already? This seems simple.

Everyone needs to pull out their calendars, set a date for the meeting and stick to it.

Our community has done enough studying.

We’ve done enough talking.

We’ve done enough meeting separately.

And we’ve had enough out-of-town experts’ opinions.

Let’s turn all of that into action.

This is not rocket science, but it does require our leaders to work together toward a common goal.

If we cannot agree on a time to simply meet together to decide the future of economic development, then we have big problems. If that’s the case it will be obvious to voters that some of our leaders simply do not want progress. They’d rather just let the community sit idle while the world passes by.

Local voters — and the rest of the world — are watching.

Do our leaders care enough about the future of economic development in our community to swallow their pride, set aside their prejudices and talk with one another to decide an action plan?

Continuing to do nothing is getting us right where we are — mired in the status quo and not making any forward progress.

Natchez and Adams County can — and should — do better.