Natchez and Adams County appear to be on the brink of finally doing something together to improve the community’s recreational offerings. That’s a great thing.

But if they’re not careful, politics will creep into the picture and have the potential to mess things up before the plan gets started.

Monday’s meeting of county supervisors and city aldermen included a discussion of the city and county’s consolidated plans to build a public swimming pool.

We’ve long said that without a good, solid comprehensive plan for all recreation that satisfies the majority of residents, simply building a pool first may be a mistake.

Our fears appeared founded by what was said at Monday’s meeting. At least one Natchez aldermen who is running for re-election and one member of a community development advisory committee seem determined that the pool construction must get started ahead of the spring municipal elections.

They even joked about who was going to buy the gold shovels used for the ceremonial groundbreaking.

At the same meeting, guests from the YMCA politely brought up several factors that seem to have not been considered — namely, who is the pool’s primary user group?

The YMCA’s questions about the intended purpose certainly seem to be something that needs to be discussed and decided well before the first spade of dirt is turned.

Unfortunately, the reaction seemed to be one of, “The YMCA doesn’t need to tell us what to do.” That kind of reaction reeks of an ill-advised move propagated not on need, but on political expediency.

Fortunately the recreation commission appears set to work with the YMCA and figure out the best plan that fits the community’s budget. The recreation commission is to return with results of those discussions in 30 days. Hopefully, common sense will outweigh political pressure, and we don’t wind up building a pool that doesn’t fit our needs.