What are the priorities for the new year? What are the things, when we have a chance to look back on 2016, will have been the most important, the most significant?

To look ahead in a crystal and make predictions are usually left for those seeking a few dollars from the uninspired and easily fooled, but 2015 is behind us and there are some items left unfinished that need to be rectified.

Leading that list is the embarrassing situation involving Kuhn Memorial Hospital. And, yes, we said embarrassing.

Kuhn continues to be a symbol of incompetence and negligence on the part of so many parties that it would take far too long to list all those responsible.

Over the years, the decrepit property has been left to be an eyesore in our community, a potential health hazard and this year, sadly, became the place of a brutal and horrific murder.

Last year after fumbling of how to find the right owners, those responsible for the property, it  became even more of a circus when leaders scrambled to find ways to remove the building once and for all.

Now, we are left again in government red tape, trying to find grants and funding to tear down the building safely and to ultimately turn the property into something else.

But, what many don’t understand is that this community doesn’t care what becomes of the property, what development comes to the property, as long as the old hospital structure is demolished and removed.

The site could be cleaned up, left vacant for all we care as long as the building is gone even if the horrific memories of what happened to Sharen Wilson will never go away.

The other, and far less emotional, item that needs to be checked off the list this year is the debate over the sports complex.

Last year, we saw city leadership get excited about the idea of a new sports complex, drawing up plans and in one case, had even looked at doing away with the city’s airport to make room for the expansive sports facility.

We have long endorsed the idea of expanded and improved facilities in Vicksburg. We have endorsed the public-private partnership needed to make the facility financially feasible and a good use of tax dollars.

But, as they would say, the idea grew legs. Instead of being hyperfocused on one idea, one need and settling on a location, city leaders hopped around from location to location, idea to idea. At this point, we are convinced the only location not considered for a new sports complex is where one currently sits on Halls Ferry Road.

We strongly encourage the mayor and aldermen to get together and finally settle on an idea and a location so that more, long-term planning can be finalized.

This remains a good idea and one that needs to be checked off the list in the New Year.

There’s plenty to do in 2016 and it is our hope in the new year that our city leaders get things done.