Many of us are quick to fuss at government. It’s easy to point a finger, shake a head and just throw up your hands in disgust at government failures.

Perhaps no public office is more criticized (at least in passing) that any kind of public works crews.

How many of us have passed a work site and frowned as we see one workman is digging a hole and three more standing and watching?

We often think to ourselves, “If I were running things, it would be different.”

Yet, the reality is, as many first-time public officeholders can confirm, managing such a department isn’t as easy as it looks.

Public works tends to be the municipal mother of the city — a city unfortunately filled with citizen children that don’t help mother much.

Like a frustrated parent who is at wits end after having said, “Pick up your toys when you’re done!” five or six too many times — in the last hour — life as a public works worker much be difficult.

Imagine living in a house with approximately 17,000 children, some of who smoke and toss cigarette butts out at random, others who treat the roadside as their own private trash bin.

The mere thought is probably enough to make most parents cringe with fear.

But that’s the reality of what Natchez’s Public Works crews face daily.

All and all, they seem to be doing OK at the difficult job. Several Natchez aldermen said last week that they felt the city department’s responsiveness and effectiveness had improved.

But in almost any situation, further improvement is possible and could result in amazing results.

One of the problems that have traditionally plagued such crews is an almost constant complaint of not having enough manpower.

That’s an easy enough fix and perhaps never before has Natchez been in a position to overcome the staffing situation.

First, city leaders need to ensure the department is running at maximum efficiency, i.e., minimizing the number of paid spectators standing near the hole or the number of grass-cutting watchers as opposed to grass-cutting cutters.

After that’s completed through basic business management principles, the next step is in putting up or shutting up.

If Natchez is to continue to grow and prosper as a tourist destination, we must begin investing in infrastructure and public works maintenance projects.

Only when we begin treating our city like the jewel we want it to be will the rest of world feel the same.

Although funding projects is part of solution, the real need is a good plan and the collective agreement to follow that plan.

The city’s comprehensive plan should include a timetable for rebuilding each square inch of crumbling sidewalks, each heavily traveled roadway should have a targeted date on which its resurfacing is planned. If that level of planning detail exists, it would be interesting to have it publicized more.

Evidence of the need is all around us.

Some of the huge bulging bumps on Martin Luther King Jr. Street have been around so long they may soon be eligible for state landmark status, sad but true.

MLK may not be a road highly traveled by tourists, but its lack of constant care says something about the level of quality our city accepts.

As the city finalizes its agreement with the Lane Company, developers of the Roth Hill Road riverfront site, hopefully city leaders will devote some of the expected city proceeds to some of these public works needs.

Of course, none of this stuff sounds terribly exciting: Rebuilding a piece of busted sidewalk, smoothing out a stretch of street or putting enough people in place to keep grass adequately cut and trash picked up.

But it is critical to Natchez’s success.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com