A group of spirited doers has taken its collective sights on the former Margaret Martin School building and has plans to help save the deteriorating building.

We applaud the group for having the courage and vision to take on such a monumental task.

Margaret Martin is perhaps among the most grand — and poorest maintained — buildings in the City of Natchez’s expansive public property inventory.

The city clearly does not have the vision or the fiscal discipline to funnel the needed funds into the building.

The latest example of that was when a water pipe beneath the building caused the city to close the building to public use.

The city couldn’t justify the $60,000 repair.

While we do not disagree with the logic, the city could find the funds if it simply managed its spending more carefully.

The city chose the easy way out by simply shutting the doors and creating yet another large, unused municipal eyesore.

Margaret Martin is a beautiful building that deserves to have a greater use.

Its beauty and historic provenance is what led to its designation as a Mississippi Landmark.

But to the greater point, the group of volunteers leading the charge deserves the community’s credit for leading a positive effort to fix a long-running city problem.

We cheer them on and hope they are successful in helping to slowly gain momentum and create a multipurpose center housing arts and cultural museums and more.

It’s exciting — and refreshing — to see citizens take a stand on an important issue and run with it.