If our area’s economy is to rebound, our community must continue to invest in two things: professional industrial recruitment and providing developable properties on which to locate new business and industry.

Adams County has made some strong moves in the last several years acquiring the former International Paper mill site as well as beginning to develop the former Belwood Country Club site.

But the latter still needs work to make it a bona fide industrial site — protection from the Mississippi River.

The very thing that makes the site appealing, close proximity to the river and the Natchez-Adams County Port, also means the site is prone to seasonal flooding, which makes a large swath of the site uninhabitable at times.

The Adams County Supervisors have worked with the Delta Regional Authority to obtain funds to begin construction of a levee to protect the site.

That work has begun, but still lacks funding to fully complete the levee.

We applaud the supervisors, Natchez Inc. and others that are working on securing early funding. The location is among the best industrial recruitment sites our area has, but only when it can be secured high and dry.

Local leaders are wise to continue to press to find funding to finish the levee so the site is primed for fast development.

Removing such impediments to job creation here should be among the area’s primary focuses in the days ahead. With all focused on that goal, we can get there more quickly than we might first think.