Kudos to the Natchez Downtown Development Association for continuing to take a leadership role in beautification of downtown.

This is literally the welcome mat we lay out for tourists who will be pouring into Natchez in coming weeks for Pilgrimage, and we need to make sure we have it spic-and-span.

This morning &045;&045; or Monday if rain is a problem &045;&045; volunteers with NDDA will be downtown cleaning and planting and preparing for the influx of visitors.

Isle of Capri Casino, the Natchez Retiree Partnership and the City of Natchez will be partnering with the downtown association for today’s cleanup.

We encourage downtown business owners to do their part as well, sprucing up the area outside their buildings.

We need to have enough pride in our community to make beautification a top priority. It simply makes good business sense &045;&045; both for the individual businesses that will benefit and for our community as a whole.

In addition to tourists coming to our beautiful city to visit antebellum houses, we often have industrial prospects &045;&045; sometimes without our knowledge &045;&045; touring the city, and we need to put on our best face.

As we approach Pilgrimage &045;&045; and every other day of the year &045;&045;beatification must be top of mind for all of us.