Nearly four years ago, the portion of Water Avenue from Broad Street to Martin Luther King Street was completely refurbished.

Sidewalks were bricked, curbing and parking were improved, utility lines were buried and the street was repaved and restriped.

Today, the other portion of downtown’s Water Avenue, from Broad Street to Church Street, sits waiting for its share of the work.

Friday, plans for the project were unveiled, but the time frame of the work and some of the items omitted from the plan, drew concern from local residents, business owners and city leaders.

“Right now, the timing of the project as it was laid out, gives me some concern as to when it will be completed and if it would be finished before the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday set for early March,” said Selma Mayor George Evans, following a meeting at the ArtsRevive Carneal Building, located on Water Avenue. “At this point, we really need to sit down and consider our options.”

Josh Pierce, with Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, the architects for the project, laid out the plans for the Water Avenue Project Friday and also discussed the project’s current timeline.

“The project is estimated to take three to four months,” Pierce said. “Right now, I don’t see how we can expect work to begin any earlier than November. If everything falls perfectly in place, then we could be finished before that event.”

Pierce said the time frame for the project, which is funded by the Alabama Department of Transportation, is an estimate, and the time of year work would be taking place is not the best.

If the project begins in November, work would continue through December, January and February, some of the worst weather months for Alabama, bringing regular rain and cold weather.

The construction budget for the project is estimated at $430,000, but that does not include the city’s 20 percent match of the project, including design, management and inspection costs.

This project, unlike the other part of Water Avenue, does not include the burying of utilities, nor does it include repaving of the street.

What it does include is all the landscaping, irrigation, parking, sidewalk and curbing work from Broad Street to Church Street. It also includes the installation of a number of green spaces and an island in the middle of the curve going along the transition of Water Avenue onto Church Street.

The island, which will include trees and other landscaping, will work to better manage the flow of traffic through the curve and reduce speeds.

But, the project may not come down to timing and the availability of the state funding.

“I am going to reach out to the state and see, if we decide to delay the work until after Jubilee, if we still receive the ALDOT funding,” Evans said. “If we run any risk of losing those funds, then we will have to go through the with the project, regardless of if it will interfere with our plans for Jubilee.”