If the City of Natchez’s math is correct, and the city’s leaders truly wanted to put the city’s first responders as the no. 1 priority in the city, the city wouldn’t be looking to hire another recreation director.

Recently, however, city aldermen voted to do just that. The city is working to hire a recreation direction at a cost of between $40,000 to $45,000, not including benefits.

Never mind that the city technically already turned over recreation to the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission, which in turn hired the YMCA of Jackson to lead.

But the city leaders, as we have known for years, never want to cede any power to anyone, particularly someone from outside of city government.

So when city personnel balked at having to “change” things and listen to someone from the outside, aldermen quickly decided they needed throw more taxpayer money at the problem.

So effectively, at least until their actions run off the YMCA, the city will have two recreation directors.

That’s ridiculous, particularly at a time when aldermen are raising taxes to help fund raises for police and fire personnel. The money being wasted on a duplicated recreation director could be better spent on police and fire.

We hope before Friday’s deadline to approve a new budget for the next fiscal year, aldermen will consider the error of their ways and put the funds to better, less duplicative use.