The name Arella Bacon is synonymous in our community with beautification. A longtime leader of the Keep Natchez-Adams County Beautiful movement, she has been working tirelessly for years to encourage residents to do things as simple as pick up after themselves &045; and others.

Bacon is not alone. Volunteers like Stephanie Hutchins and Tammi Mullins, who has organized downtown cleanup efforts through the Natchez Downtown Development Association, have worked to clean up our community one piece of trash at a time.

But for a long time, no matter how hard these volunteers worked, the task of keeping our community clean was simply too large for one group of people to handle.

They have needed &045; and wanted &045; the city to step in and lead the effort.

And that’s just what happened this week.

Through the efforts of two committees made up of both citizens and city officials, our mayor and board of aldermen pledged to put some serious teeth in our beautification efforts.

This is exactly the support these volunteers have needed all these years.

We can now expect:

4Laws already on the books to encourage cleanliness and order will be enforced.

4Money will be in the budget before the end of this fiscal year to pay for tree-well plantings, and money is pledged for the next fiscal year to contract with a landscape company to keep those tree wells clean and maintained.

4&8220;Homes of distinction&8221; will be recognized every other month.

4We’ll see the slogan &8220;Nothing Matches Natchez: Fight to Keep it Clean&8221; used to help remind everyone to keep the city clean.

What an incredible boost for the beautification effort. Its importance cannot be overemphasized. Our first impression &045; on tourists and potential industries &045; can make or break us.

Kudos to the beautification education committee, made up of Stephanie Hutchins, chairman; Arella Bacon, Keep Natchez-Adams County Beautiful; Laura Godfrey, Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce; Margaret Graves, Natchez Public Works; Millicent Mayo, Natchez Public Schools; Tammi Mullins, Natchez Downtown Development; Janet Sullivan, Mississippi Department of Transportation; Ralph Tedder, Natchez Recreation Department; and Wilbert Whittley, Recreation Department; and the beautification enforcement committee, made up of David Gardner, city engineer; Jose Oakley, Isle of Capri; Bob Jackson, city planner; Artimese Evans, city planning office; Paul Dawes, city inspector; and Police Chief Mike Mullins.

Thanks to our aldermen for pledging the money and manpower it will take to enforce these new policies.

And thanks to Mayor Phillip West for the leadership it took to get us here.

But let’s not stop here. We have more eyesores to tackle &045; junk cars and abandoned lots and downtown billboards among them. And city officials must make sure enforcement is as much a part of the policy as education.

We’ve taken a huge step forward. And that momentum can carry over into many other aspects of our quality of life.

Kerry Whipple

is editor of The Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3541 or by e-mail at kerry.whipple@ natchezdemocrat.com.