Sometimes when things aren’t going well with a team of people, a leader just needs to replace a few key positions.

Look no further than the NFL to see the impact a single star player can have on the overall success of a team.

Sometimes, however, it’s not the players as much as it is the coach.

Great coaches are difficult to come by sometimes, but the best of them are worth their weight in gold.

A couple of months ago the City of Natchez announced a series of terminations, presumably all related to budget concerns.

The result was the near annihilation of the city’s planning department and a complete restructuring of the leadership at the public works department.

The planning department continues to appear to be floating in uncertainty after the city eliminated both the coach — the city planner — and most of the team.

But the changes with public works appear to be having profound results that can be seen throughout the city.

Long considered to be an ineffective, even slightly lethargic team, public works’ employees may have been given a bad rap. The changes in leadership seem to have the department well on the way to becoming one of the city’s most efficient.

The work that the department has accomplished in the last few weeks is truly amazing. Work along some of the city’s most visible entrances is an obvious example of their quickly working through projects that long needed attention.

From the clean up of lingering storm debris on the edges of Duncan Park to trees trimmed along Canal Street, the change has been easy to see, and much appreciated.

The coaching change seems to be working well for public works. We only hope that the gutting of the planning department ultimately works out as well.