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A new year is upon us and we are filled with optimism about all we can collectively accomplish this year.

Here are two items on our wish list that we hope elected leaders and others in the city and county will make progress on this year.

The first on the list is the beginning of work on Morgantown Road and a clear path to finishing that project.

Adams County Supervisors and the City’s Mayor and Board of Aldermen have worked diligently and done all they possibly could in the last four years to get this project going. The only reason it hasn’t happened to date is because of tremendous cost overruns due to inflation and bureaucracy on the state and federal level.

The county and city and its engineering firm continue to jump through every hoop put before them and we are confident work will actually begin on Morgantown Road this year.

A close second is finding a long-term solution to the issue of replacing the current Adams County Jail.

The county is not going to build a jail overnight and could not afford such even if that were possible. However, the problem is a real one and we hope county and city officials will embrace the work of Debbie Germany and her exploratory group, who is looking at a variety of options for housing inmates and finding funds available on the state and federal level for doing so.

While contracting with the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office to house Adams County’s and Natchez’s inmates is the best possible short term solution, it’s not a fix for the problem. Our need for a jail is not going away.

The best thing the exploratory committee can do is think about long-term needs and come up with ideas for a complex that would serve the sheriff’s office, the Natchez Police Department, our court system and perhaps even a mental health unit of some kind.

We hope that committee and draw upon the experiences of others and how they have met that need, as well as the funding that is available from a variety of sources to make it a reality.