Natchez, Vidalia and the surrounding areas would not exist in their present forms if not for the Mississippi River.

Having one of the world’s largest rivers and a key commercial transportation route running past our back porch, is a pretty big feather in our area’s hat.

While at times it can seem as if many of us take the river for granted, the river is among the most important things we have.

It’s one of the things that makes our area unique and a key factor that can be used to foster world-class industrial and agricultural development here.

So the much-discussed Vidalia port project makes a good bit of sense, particularly if it is made to not directly compete against the existent Adams County Port.

Critics of the new port argue that it will simply overlap our area’s existing port and do more harm than good.

Those critics lack much in the way of vision. If the two ports work together, it’s possible that they can be set up to rarely overlap one another’s work and can ultimately offer businesses a much more expansive array of capabilities.

Those capabilities, combined with smart, coordinated economic development efforts, could quickly fill up the capacity of both ports.

But if each side opts to go their own way, both sides of the river could suffer.

To avoid that, our community leaders on both sides of the river need to talk about the issues and agree how to maximize our efforts rather than compete with ourselves.

Working together toward a common goal of improving our community could prove a powerful force, one that could rival the river’s own power.