City to discuss school property swap

Published 12:44 am Sunday, May 15, 2011

Two committees of the Selma City Council will hold back-to-back meetings Monday, working to clear up items that have faced the council for a number of weeks.

The council’s administrative council, chaired by council member Angela Benjamin, will take up the topic of a property issue involving the city of Selma and the Selma City School Board.

In March, the council was presented a letter from superintendent of education Donald Jefferson, asking the city transfer property that the new Selma High School is currently being constructed to the school board.

Email newsletter signup

“In order to complete the construction of the new high school and comply with the laws of Alabama the [school] board must show that it owns the property where the new school will be located,” Jefferson said in the letter.

According to information in Jefferson’s letter, the property was conveyed by the City National Bank of Selma to the city of Selma on Aug. 9, 1938. At that time, ownership of the property was not an issue since the school system was a part of the city and not an independent entity as it is today.

School construction has continued at the site without any problems.

The council’s public safety committee will discuss a proposed change to one of the city’s alcohol sales ordinances, asking that the distance between schools and future businesses allowed to sell alcohol be increased from the current limit of 300 feet to 500 yards.

City attorney Jimmy Nunn presented the full council a proposed ordinance during their meeting Tuesday. But, there appeared to be some confusion over whether the distance suggested by the Cahaba Center for Mental Health and the Selma Dallas Prevention Collaborative was 500 yards or 500 feet.

In a letter presented to the full council in their final April meeting, the letter does request the distance be increased to 500 yards.

Council pro tem Corey Bowie, who chairs the public safety committee, said the committee would work to clear up all the details during Monday’s meeting.

The administrative committee begins their meeting at 4 p.m. in the council chambers at Selma City Hall, while the public safety committee’s meeting is planned to begin at 5 p.m.