Bean field best left for recreation
Published 12:02 am Friday, January 6, 2017
Today members of three important government entities will meet to talk about the future of a field.
The field in question is not just any field. It is, perhaps, one of the most sought-after pieces of non-riverfront property in Natchez.
Known as the bean field, the large swath of land adjacent to Natchez High School has been vacant for decades.
For many, many years, the land has been discussed as a great potential location for a new recreation facility, one that would take the quality of Natchez’s recreation to a modern level.
Better recreational facilities are sorely needed. Towns that are fractions of Natchez’s size often have far superior facilities to ours. The lack of better facilities reeks of poor leadership in the past here.
Today’s leaders have forged and unprecedented agreement between the city aldermen, county supervisors and school board. The joint community recreation commission has made more positive momentum in the last few years on joining forces and actually getting things done on recreation than others have done in the last two decades.
We stand on the precipice of a great change in Natchez, one that could improve the quality of life for young and old of all walks of life, if the vision to complete a new state-of-the-art recreation complex is completed.
The only hurdle to be discussed at a rare city-county-school leadership meeting today is the Natchez-Adams School Board’s sudden desire to use a portion of the property to build a new high school.
We support plans to build a new school facility, but strongly feel putting the school on the bean field is a mistake and is not the best use of that property.
Don’t get us wrong. Education is massively important and is the future for the growth of our community or the demise of it. But the location of the school is immaterial. It is the effort and love that is invested in children that matters, not the proximity to a highway.