Once again this week, some of the elected representatives in Natchez have placed a bet on arguably the city’s best real estate.

In a 4-2 vote Tuesday, Natchez aldermen granted another extension to the would-be casino developers who keep promising to build at the foot of Roth Hill on city-owned riverfront property.

Developers promised to pay the city $50,000 for a three-month extension, with an option for a second three-month extension.

We’ve long expressed our opinion on this matter and continue to believe that the city is holding on to what certainly seems like a long shot, at best. It’s been four years since the city originally announced a tentative agreement with the developers.

At last check, developers still had not submitted all of their paperwork to the Mississippi Gaming Commission, and apparently still lack the funding to get the plans off the drawing board and into the ground.

Funding has become difficult for many development projects in recent years. However, the city’s insistence that the current crop of developers is the best and only option for Roth Hill’s future is misguided.

Sure, a line of developers is not standing at Roth Hill with wallets in hand, waiting to invest. But that could be because no one believes the site is available.

Roth Hill has been “engaged” for four years now. It’s time for a wedding ring, or a new suitor should be found.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the city committed to invest the $100,000 the developers will pay into something fruitful?

Imagine how many suitors might come if the city took a fraction of the funds and marketed the site as “available” again.

We’d be willing to bet something good would come out of it. Something more than the waiting game Natchez has played for four long years.