Sometimes it takes an outsider’s perspective to point out the obvious — Natchez and Adams County should work together in all facets.

Last week, the man who leads the economic development in Oxford told members of the Natchez-Adams County Chamber that sometimes simply focusing on smokestacks is missing another key part of economic development — quality of life.

Further, he said the community might be wise to consider how to pool resources together so everyone involved is on the same page. In Oxford and surrounding Lafayette County, that means having the economic development entity working in the same organization as the local chamber of commerce.

That same approach is something we’ve long thought Natchez should consider a single entity with several arms to handle economic development, tourism and business lobbying.

Our community has all of these functions working separately now. But even when each entity has the best of intentions, they can often simply forget to communicate to others and that can lead to duplication or missed opportunities.

Such thinking is just like the common sense that would seem to come from merging together city and county government functions.

Pooling our resources on key business recruitment, tourism marketing and making the community a more business-friendly city just makes sense and is certainly something our community should explore.