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Earlier Friday morning, several members of the city including the community alongside members visiting from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Live Health Smart Alabama met under a pavilion due to inclement weather to kick off the celebratory ribbon cutting event for the new improved East Selma Community Pond and Park.

Before, the park looked unkept and looked as if it was out of order and unusable for the East Selma community to enjoy but once members started talking to Ward 8 councilman Micheal Johnson about the conditions of the park, Johnson alongside the city partnered with others in the community and beyond to bring the park to what it is today.

Vibrant, beautiful and an inviting place for all to walk, play, read, and enjoy the scenery of the new and improved pond and park, as we know it today.

“We’re excited about this work and really thankful for all of the partners who are present here, who assisted with this work and to everyone here, this could not have been done without you. It could not have been done without the citizens, without the Mt. Ararat Missionary Baptist Church, without the businesses, without education, and without government. We all needed to work together to make this possible,” said Mayor Perkins of The City of Selma.

There were several speakers at the event from Dr. Ray L. Watts, who is the President of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Moana Fouad, who is the CEO of Live HealthSmart Alabama, Terri Sewell, who is our U.S. House of Representative that serves Alabama’s 7th District alongside Teresa Shufflebarger, who is the Chief Administrative Officer for Live Health Smart Alabama organization among many others who were in attendance and spoke on the behalf of the improved pond and park.

Councilman Johnson even spoke about the park, giving thanks to all that were involved and brought the citizens’ dream of a better pond and park to fruition.

“Well, I’m proud to be here to celebrate this project that we put together here in Selma for the people who live here. We’re excited to extend our live HealthSmart Alabama model from Birmingham to revitalize neighborhoods and improve health statewide and we started our expansion out of Birmingham, right here in Selma because we were welcomed so well,” Watts said.

Watts said in the park, there is new signage, pole banners, beautifully restored gazebos and new benches and renovated restrooms as well and he also recognized Goodwin Mills and Cawood helping with the architectural, landscape and engineering plans for the renovation.

“They’ve worked alongside us in every neighborhood that we’ve worked in across Alabama,” Watts said. This scenic pond itself is a walking trail that is better connected now and this will be a place for all citizens to utilize.”

Watts told the members of Ward 8 including all in attendance at the event, that the next step for them to do is to take advantage of the park when it opens. Like Watts, Mayor Perkins said the goal now for the park is to keep it maintained and in use for many years to come.

The pond and park will officially open between early March and late April.