Looking back on the events and news of 2009, it’s easy to see the tumultuous news items.

Putting a negative spin on the year’s news would be simple, but doing so would be missing the results of what’s happened after the bad news came out.

Perhaps, history will prove that the year 2009 was the year that the Miss-Lou began a big turnaround, even a revival of sorts.

With the addition of a new private prison in Adams County, a rubber plant in Vidalia and continued progress from synthetic fuel developer Rentech, perhaps 2009 will be remembered as the year the local economy began to turn positive.

The overwhelming outcry from the public on the recreation referendum in Adams County may prove that this past year was the year taxpayers began stepping up and demanding more from elected officials.

That same level of involvement can be seen in the upsurge of support from the business community for a revised plan to fix the county’s economic development engine. Getting business owners involved in economic development could prove to be the key to putting Adams County back on the map for prospective business development.

And finally, the county-owned hospital, Natchez Regional Medical Center, appears to have turned a corner on its long-standing financial and management issues. Hopefully, 2009 will be remembered as the year NRMC was not only saved, but the year it began to get rolling again fulfilling its mission of providing health care to residents of the Miss-Lou.

Here’s hoping that 2010 and the years to come are great ones and that our community finishes what it started in 2009.

Happy New Year.