Natchez is one signature away of owning a 37-acre field which could offer the community recreation dreams for decades to come.

On Wednesday, Congress passed the Natchez Trace Parkway Conveyance Act of 2013.

The legislation would allow the National Park Service to deed the unused property to the City of Natchez and another 30 acres to the State of Mississippi.

All that remains is President Obama’s signature for the legislation to become law.

The site the city would receive was affectionately dubbed the “bean field” site several years ago when it was first considered as a possible location for a new recreation site.

That was in the late 1990s.

It has taken nearly 15 years to get the property released from the federal government — and the process is nearly complete.

Many thanks to the city leaders along with Mississippi’s Congressional leaders who never gave up on Natchez’s field of dreams.

We have the land — or soon will.

We have a plan.

What we lack is a definite funding plan and the political and civic leadership to make it a reality.

Does the community have enough interest in providing our youth with a state-of-the-art recreation facility to fork out the money to pay for one? We sure hope so.