Getting government and the egos of elected leaders out of the way was the very intent of a carefully constructed recreation agreement between the City of Natchez and Adams County.

The goal was to give control to the jointly funded Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission, which in turn sought professional, recreational management help from the YMCA.

Unfortunately, it appears the elected egos — or at least a few of them — are simply too large to be contained and their stubbornness now runs the risk of destroying the recreation structure that took months and months to create.

Earlier this week, tensions that have been bubbling up between Natchez aldermen, the YMCA’s leadership and the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission came to a head.

The short of it is, a few city leaders simply cannot fathom that they would allow the YMCA to help manage the recreation department workers who initially worked for the city.

That is despite the city agreeing to do exactly that some time ago.

What’s worse, the decision seems to come without truly letting the YMCA stretch its legs and show the public what it can do.

Some county supervisors — who are ostensibly partners with the city leaders in the recreation commission — are frustrated by the city’s change of heart.

We agree with some who say that without the professional management of the YMCA, the plans for a public swimming pool need to be shelved indefinitely.

Aldermen who are opposed to the cooperative agreement need to publicly explain how the Natchez Recreation Department’s personnel are better equipped now to manage a pool than they were 20 years ago when the city-owned Duncan Park pool was allowed to fall into a shambles and ultimately closed.