Selma City Council gets update of closing county's only movie theater after being declared unsafe

The Selma City Council heard an update on the closing of the Larry D. Striplin Jr. Performing Arts Center Monday after the building was deemed unsafe by the City of Selma building inspector and closed until further notice on July 14. 

The Performing Arts Center includes Walton Theater, the city’s only movie theater.  

Mayor James Perkins Jr. told the city council at a special called meeting Monday that parts of the ceiling collapsed into the building in several “common areas,” which prompted the building inspector to declare the building unsafe.  

The closing was announced in a news release and on the city’s Facebook page July 14.  

John Grayson, who rents Walton Theater from the city, said his wife noticed tiles fell from the ceiling in the girls bathroom, and there was a problem with an area of roof “which is back behind the screen that has been damaged for about a month or so now.”  

“In addition to the age of the roof, the constant heavy rains are just taking their toll on our buildings, and many of the roofs need to be replaced,“ Public Building Director Stephanie Menifee said in the July 14 statement.  

Councilperson Jannie Thomas told Perkins Monday that she thought the previous council approved replacing the roof on the building. Perkins said he would look into the age of the roof.  

Council President Warren “Billy” Young asked City Attorney Major Madison Jr. to consider discounting Grayson’s rent because he is unable to use the building until it reopens.  

Grayson said they are looking for ways to still show movies, possibly outdoors, until it can reopen. 

Located at 1000 Selma Avenue, the Larry D. Striplin Jr. Performing Art Center was part of a restoration project which encompassed almost an entire city block and included the restoration of the Walton Theater, an abandoned movie theatre that had been home to the children of Selma every Saturday afternoon during the 1940s and 1950s, according to the city’s web site. 

Perkins said the condition of the Performing Arts Center is a sign of the city’s need to repair decaying infrastructure. “Every day it is becoming more and more expensive to maintain these old historic structures, and if we are to continue, we simply need more money, or we will need to set course in a new direction.”  

Perkins presented the budget for the upcoming fiscal year to the City Council Monday. You can read about the budget in the July 13 Selma Sun, and a copy of the budget is posted on the city’s Facebook page.