Mayor George Flaggs Jr.’s proposal for a 10-year plan for the city’s capital and infrastructure improvements should have been done 10 years ago.

For years, city officials adopted an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” policy when it came to our infrastructure, and that policy has come back to bite us.

Our 109-year-old sewer system, our 47-year-old water plant and distribution system and 43-year-old sewer treatment plant are all showing their age and have serious problems.

City water and sewer lines break periodically and in some cases sewer or storm drain lines have collapsed causing sinkholes. A construction crew working on a sewer line at the intersection of Bowmar and Letitia streets in 2013 peeled back the paving to find nothing between the road bed and the line but air. The hole in the line sucked out the soil around it.

The water treatment plant’s aging electrical system has shorted out three times, shutting the plant down and forcing officials to order a citywide boil water notice.

Vicksburg is under an Environmental Protection Agency consent decree to assess, map and upgrade or replace its aging sewer system after it was found the city allowed raw sewage to be dumped into nearby streams, including the Mississippi river. That project is estimated to cost the city between $3 million to $4 million a year for 10 years.

For years, the city went into crisis mode when part of the infrastructure went down, authorizing repairs and moving money around to pay for the repairs.

Flaggs wants to stop that. He wants the board to plan ahead: examine the city’s infrastructure needs, set priorities and develop a plan in advance to finance the projects.

“What this will do is stop us from paying as we go for making future preparations,” Flaggs said.

“It’s all a part of making certain that we leave future administrations with a guide for the operation of the city of Vicksburg, whether it’s through the structure of government, or whether it’s through providing services.”

It’s the right move. Flaggs plans to propose a 10-year plan to Aldermen Michael Mayfield and Willis Thompson within three to four weeks. Our aldermen would be wise to consider it and work with the mayor.

To borrow from the old saying, “You can pay me now or you can pay me later.” And as we’ve seen with our infrastructure, later is much more expensive.