Architects and builders have a term for how you manage to accommodate a champagne taste on a beer budget. They call it “value engineering.”

The premise is simple — seek lower-cost alternatives to what is planned that do not drastically affect the building’s structure and purpose.

For example, perhaps an owner would use lower-quality bathroom fixtures or laminate flooring instead of rare, reclaimed Brazilian hardwood flooring or other more expensive options.

The challenge with value engineering is that if one isn’t careful, important, necessary things can be nipped off the plan by mistake.

The county is learning that the hard way with the realization that the controversial FEMA shelter the county is building near Liberty Park had its exterior lights cut from the plans as the budget appeared in trouble.

Supervisor Mike Lazarus is correct in suggesting the county should spend no additional funds on the building. We’ve long questioned the value and purpose of the building in the first place. It’s a shelter built mostly because a federal grant covered the majority of the constructions expenses.

Do we need such a shelter? That’s debatable, but even before the shelter is completed we’re already seeing that it may cost county taxpayers even more money.

We hope Lazarus and other supervisors stand their ground and stop throwing money at the building, which likely will wind up simply being an ancillary building for nearby Natchez High School.

We also hope county leaders will realize that just because something looks like a “good deal” doesn’t mean it should be done, particularly with taxpayer money.