A year seems like a long time to the young among us. Time is marked with birthdays and big holidays.

But as we all age, the years begin to seem shorter. Time flies and thinking of a single year can seem like a small amount of time.

Two local mayors are celebrating birthdays of sorts —the passing of their first year in office.

Ferriday Mayor Glen McGlothin and Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton both rode into office on a public wave of change last year and both have faced significant issues in their first 12 months.

Middleton has been in the big chair as the city has faced some long-standing budget issues and practices as well as several severe weather problems that ripped up portions of the city.

In the remaining three years, Middleton could create a better legacy for his term if he managed to get better control over the often-out-of-control aldermen meetings, helped to lead the city into truly better financial management and showed progress on making a recreation complex a reality.

McGlothin, who served as Ferriday mayor previously, faced familiar issues with the town’s water plant woes.

His return to Town Hall will be yet again judged on fixing — hopefully once and for all — the water problems. Further, McGlothin needs to continue working on improving Ferriday’s infrastructure — water system, roads, downtown development, etc.

Both McGlothin and Middleton have jobs that entail great public scrutiny and pressure, but they knew that when they signed up to run. Our community needs both men to push hard to clean up wasteful spending, fix past government wrongs and provide the best basic services our community can provide.

Middleton and McGlothin both have the best interest of the community in mind and that makes their first birthday all the more meaningful.