If you’re wondering where the summer went — or for that matter the spring, too — join the crowd.

The last few months have literally rocketed past. With school back in session, the pace will only pick up more as we head into the holiday season.

As we scream toward the end of the year an interesting thing is happening — lots of people are talking about running for office in 2011.

A long-time community acquaintance grabbed my arm recently and said, “Have you heard?”

“Heard what?” I said. (This is sadly a familiar response for me as I’m usually the last to know of what’s going on in the world).

“I’m running for supervisor!”

“Good for you,” I replied.

The interesting thing is that the man’s political revelation wasn’t the first I’d heard that week.

Apparently, lots of people are planning to throw their hats in the ring to vie for one of the five coveted Adams County Supervisor positions.

The past four years have certainly been interesting ones for county residents with lots of issues certain to ruffle feathers to the point of sparking political aspirations.

The much-talked-about recreation issue will almost certainly be an issue in the 2011 race for supervisor, as will issues of public finance.

County residents — and incumbent supervisors — received a bit of a shock when they realized their bond rating — the municipal version of a credit score — was dropped by a national rating agency.

The result meant supervisors were advised not to borrow $6 million to resurface some county roads.

Continuing trouble at the county administrator’s office certainly seems to indicate that the position either has too much responsibility and stress on it or the supervisors (or some of them) make life difficult for the administrators.

More recently the unintended consequence of simply starting to check the savings claimed by a switch of cell phone carriers wound up spiraling into “cell phone gate.”

Some supervisors joked a bit about the use of their cell phones until taxpayers started showing public anger over the matter.

They quickly apologized and vowed to do better.

Throughout the past few years, incumbent supervisors continued to show their blatant disregard for the state’s Open Meetings Law from time to time by moving into executive session during a number of meetings to discuss matters that simply should not have been discussed behind closed doors.

All of those — and more — will certainly be discussed, debated and mulled over as candidates decide whether or not to run and voters ultimately decide who to support.

Ultimately, I hope this year’s race operates free of the mud-slinging that often comes when candidates are piling onto the ballots

The qualifying deadline for the 2011 general election is March 1. The primary is Aug. 2. But judging by the speed with which 2010 has disappeared, the slate of candidates will be set before you know it.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.