For years ,Natchez leaders have been talking about fixing the North Natchez flooding and drainage problems.

For years, residents have come before the board of aldermen and sought help.

For years, leaders have lobbied state and federal sources to find the approximately $3.5 million still needed to finish the project.

But now patience is growing thin, and a few outspoken leaders are fueling the public outcries by whispering that the issue must be about race.

Their logic is that if Buckner’s Alley and North Wall Street — two of the affected areas — were in so-called white parts of town the issues would long ago have been fixed.

That implies institutional racism that seems to have no basis in truth.

The truth is that drainage projects must start at the outflow portion. That was where this project started and work continued going upstream until the funds ran out.

Quite simply, if the city had the money, the issue could be quickly fixed. But finding $3.5 million isn’t easy — at least not for infrastructure issues like roads and drainage.

The city has done a good job thus far in piecing together funding sources to get the first phases completed.

Ultimately, however, the city needs to figure out a source for funding — even if that source includes the possibility of a bond issue or selling off unused public property to help fund the work.

City leaders cannot stand by and allow money and race to bubble into a huge brouhaha that further divides the community.

Natchez is too wonderful of a place to allow that to happen.