At the end of every year, the staff here at the newspaper asks our community leaders to be a bit like the prognosticating octopus of World Cup fame.

And each year area leaders make a few predictions, a few educated guesses and a couple of promises about what may come to the Miss-Lou in the coming year.

Leaders almost always offer predictions drowning in optimism. But that’s not a bad thing; a community with a mayor who said, “It’s going to be a really bad year. Nothing new will happen,” would quickly dry up and die, no doubt.

When too much optimism is applied, though, the community starts to lose faith in the octopus.

Let’s see how the local octopuses did last year.

At the end of 2009, Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton predicted the following for 2010:

– The overlay of several downtown roads.

– The beginning of phase 2 of the North Natchez Drainage Project.

– The beginning of work on the Natchez Trails Project.

– A $4 million wastewater treatment plant project.

– The start of construction at the Roth Hill casino site.

Several downtown roads did see work this year; of course several more need work.

North Natchez Drainage work is in full swing.

The Trails project is under way and looks great.

An update to the wastewater treatment plant using stimulus dollars was done.

It’s Middleton’s last prediction that broke his streak and has caused many folks in town to question his leadership.

By most accounts, it seems the Roth Hill casino is no closer to breaking ground today than it was a year ago.

Middleton again included the casino on his 2011 prediction list.

At the end of 2009, county supervisors predicted the following:

– The formation of a recreation commission and a plan for creating a recreation complex.

– A fiscally sound county budget.

– Progress with the coal-to-liquid plant Rentech.

The recreation commission is up and running and has received financial commitments from the city, county and school board. A landscape architect is working on the design.

Though the supervisors say the budget is sound, the county’s bond rating was not raised, as the board hoped. Supervisors’ President Darryl Grennell again included that wish on his 2011 list.

Rentech officials did visit in April and submitted several environmental permits this year. The company said then they hoped to break ground in 2011 and open in 2014.

Grennell and Middleton both pointed to Rentech as the biggest possibility for 2011.

In Vidalia, Mayor Hyram Copeland pointed to the following predictions:

– Construction on the Vidalia port.

– Construction on a new municipal complex.

– Construction on the new recreation complex.

– New plans for additional housing.

No physical work on the port or the recreation complex began in 2010, but the city did break ground on the municipal complex.

All three projects are on Copeland’s 2011 list.

The city did roll out a plan for a new apartment complex.

Overall, area leaders were 10-12 on predicted projects, not bad, really.

Of course, Paul the Octopus was never wrong.

Julie Cooper is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or julie.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.