Poised to celebrate 300 years of existence in a year and a half, Natchez is showing its age from almost every angle.

Make no doubt about it, Natchez is a beauty queen in our hearts. The city is known throughout the world for its exquisite antebellum architecture and Southern charm.

But for what must be the better part of a decade — perhaps longer — the City of Natchez has simply patched and glued back together key infrastructure needs almost on an emergency basis.

The latest example is the Natchez City Auditorium, which has limped by on decrepit cooling equipment for years.

The result was that tourists had to sit through the Historic Natchez Tableaux during Spring Pilgrimage in what one organizer referred to as “stifling.”

We agree with Natchez city aldermen who declared the matter an emergency in order to quickly get the facility repaired.

But once that building is fixed, another similar problem is probably waiting in the wings.

Natchez’s biggest need may be the frugality to stop spending on new projects and new needs and instead build a plan to simply take care of what already exists.

The need for refurbishing the community’s infrastructure runs the gamut from drainage to sidewalks, public buildings to parks.

Before the next emergency — or the next big expenditure — the city would be wise to slow down and think through how to avoid the “emergencies” that could be prevented by investing in routine maintenance and equipment replacement.