The city of Selma has received a $500,000 grant to open a transportation hub that will serve the influx of tourists who will be coming to the expanded Civil Rights Visitor’s Center on Broad Street.
The grant from the Delta Regional Authority will pay for renovating the Historic Western Railway Building and purchasing an electronic open-air trolley, a pedal bus and a pedal taxi. The city will throw in almost $57,000 to cover personnel, equipment and advertising for what it calls the Innovative Tourism Hub.
According to the proposal, the Hub will be located just east of the St. James Hotel on Water Street near the amphitheater.
In a letter supporting the grant request, the superintendent of the Selma to Montgomery Trail said the National Park Service expects visitation to the new visitor center to increase by about 85% when it’s complete.
Visitors “will look forward to a more robust interactive experience that can how include the actual grounds where foot soldiers lived, worked and interacted in their community,” Joy G. Kinard said in her letter of support. “Because of this, we are committed to collaborate with the City Wallace Community College and Selma University to place and hire drivers, operators and tour guides.”
U.S. Rep Terry Sewell and the Selma and Dallas County Chamber of Commerce also wrote letters supporting the grant.
The Sustainable Tourism Business Initiative will create 12 jobs, and 35 entrepreneurs will be trained in three sessions. The city expects the trolley, pedal taxi tours and pedal bus to generate almost $300,000 in revenue from 3,500 tourists and their families, according to the grant request. The electric trolley will cost $115,000, the pedal bus will cost $38,000 and the four pedal taxis will cost $20,000 each.
The city also received a $750,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs to repair tornado damage to Memorial Stadium and Bloch Park. The grant letter said the city has allocated $250,000 for repairs to the stadium and the park.
The stadium and park were damaged in the January 2023 tornado.
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