“Our downtown area is really booming and this team needs to help us make a decision and give us input on what our next step will be,” Selma Mayor George Evans said during Thursday’s meeting of the Selma Downtown Redevelopment Authority. “It’s going to take people working together and it will take some time.”

Those words were part of a discussion by the group to potentially set up maintenance guidelines to ensure the recent redevelopment projects in downtown Selma continue to look as good tomorrow as they do today.

Over the past year, well in excess of a million dollars has been invested in just one block of downtown Selma and that figure is well above the seven-figure mark when you factor in the private business redevelopment projects that have taken place.

The recent unveiling of Phoenix Park is just another example of what can be done right when developing areas of downtown, but it cannot be an example of waiting for a building to deteriorate and then making a park.

Selma has far too many historic buildings that don’t necessarily have to be fully restored, but at the very least stabilized and have some evidence that the people who own them at least give half a darn about their property.

For many visitors to Selma, the only impression they take away from our city is what our historic downtown shows them. Thanks to the work of both governmental agencies and private investment, Selma’s historic downtown is showing tremendous signs of life.

And thanks to the efforts of groups such as the downtown redevelopment authority, we have a chance to have recent projects maintain their beauty and grandeur for years to come.