By Susan Youngblood | Youngblood is the council member for Selma’s Ward 3.

Public safety consists of the Selma Police Department, and the Selma Fire Department.

These are the agencies that strive to help serve and protect us.

We cannot imagine the ways that they keep us from harm every day. Both agencies struggle to maintain standards to operate.

It is very costly to protect a city and its citizens plus the police jurisdiction.

Public works is the agency that strives to clean our city and make necessary repairs to property for which the city of Selma is responsible.

Parks and recreation consists of all activities that offer us recreation and sports activities.

These agencies are the pivotal municipal agencies in providing what is crucial for a town to succeed.

People have to feel safe whether at home, going to church or the store, taking children to school, the library, or just hanging Out. We have to feel safe to enjoy the town.

Secondly, a town has to be clean.

Garbage has to be picked up and dealt with in order to appear and smell clean.

It has to be aesthetically pleasing. Roads have to be in decent order, potholes filled, paved on a regular basis and city grass mowed and weeds abated.

Those two are necessities. We need Parks and Recreation for quality of life.

Just what is quality of life? That is comprised of those things that make us say “yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about. That’s why I like Selma. So many things to offer.”

We have the state track meets every year; we have tennis courts; we have activities to celebrate holidays, occasions, and seasons; we have great football and baseball facilities.

We have fabulous fishing with a marina and top-notch restaurant, and so, so much more.

It takes a lot to operate these departments.

We have other departments in our city. These, in my view, are the most crucial.

But they all require money to operate. If we don’t shop in Selma, we are not helping fund these departments.

A larger tax base means more operating money. More operating money means better pay for the workers and better, updated equipment, which we are sucking wind on, by the way.

So if you live in Selma, Dallas County and do your shopping in Prattville, Montgomery, Birmingham, Atlanta or elsewhere, you are helping their safety, public health and aesthetics, and quality of life issues.

Meantime, the people who live there pay gobs more in property tax. (Look it up).

So, remember folks. You get what you pay for.

Yes. There are times when the availability of goods necessitates going out of town. But try Selma first. Your safety, sense of place, and quality of life depend on it.