More than a year ago, at a meeting co-sponsored by local financial institutions and the Natchez-Adams County Economic and Community Development Authority, a presenter offered several &uot;must-haves&uot; for an effective, proactive economic development effort.

Among them was a plan … something as simple as an agreed-upon tax incentive package that recruiters could take to potential businesses when trying to woo them to our county.

Yet, more than year later, no one has stepped forward to create that plan.

County elections; city elections; the lack of an official director for the EDA … all of these are reasons offered for the lack of a plan.

But they are all unacceptable.

And the unsettling news that International Paper plans to sell its 750-employee Natchez mill only highlights the obvious oversight here.

Even though the president of the county’s board of supervisors has said the county would offer the standard tax incentive (a 10-year tax break) to any new company coming into town, no one – neither the city leaders, county leaders or EDA leaders – has put that offer on paper.

We’re lucky, of course, that International Paper is highly skilled in corporate mergers and that, because the chemical cellulose business is highly specialized, IP has a targeted market of potential buyers for the mill.

But we can’t count on being lucky in the future.

We need a proactive, effective and prepared economic development authority -&160;led by a professional committed to the cause of economic development. We’ve been advertising the job for more than a year now, with no success.

It’s time to seek outside help; it’s time to hire an economic development professional.

And it’s time to get serious about economic development …