It keeps getting worse. With all of the feet fleeing the City of Natchez these days, city buildings are beginning to resemble shoe stores. Already facing vacancies in several key city departments, two more pair of shoes soon will need filling.

This week, city officials learned Dwight Greene and Rachel Price, both of whom work in sales for the Natchez Convention and Visitors Bureau, plan to leave their posts.

Both hold pivotal positions with the sales and marketing of the Natchez Convention Center.

The two are the latest in what seems to be a growing exodus of city employees.

In the last several weeks and months, the city has lost its police chief, fire chief, city planner, veterans services coordinator and the mayor’s secretary.

While some projects already under way continue to move forth, the sudden need to focus heavily on recruiting and hiring must be take away valuable time needed for other projects.

If the city is to move ahead and begin firing on all cylinders again, two things need to happen.

First, each cylinder must contain a good, usable sparkplug.

Second, the ignition system needs to be tuned so all of the cylinders fire in the right order. It’s the only way to have the city’s engine run smoothly. Otherwise the sputtering and the backfiring will continue.

City leaders must rally the existing troops, fill vacancies and change the focus from: &uot;Who’s next?&uot; to &uot;What’s next?&uot;

Until that paradigm changes in the minds of both city employees, workers and taxpayers, all will continue to worry about the present rather than look to the future.