Selmont community talks incorporation at Q&A meeting, gets enough votes to put on a ballot

With what organizers called “the last major meeting before the vote,” leaders of the Selmont incorporation effort gathered residents Monday night at the VFW on Kings Bend Road to explain the process, report on months of work and announce that the community has surpassed the number of signatures needed to move the proposal forward.

The meeting, hosted by Aaron Roper of the VFW and a member of the Operation Selmont leadership team, drew a large crowd of residents from across the 3.3-mile area proposed for incorporation. 

“We wanted to make sure that we educated everybody that we came in contact with about incorporation,” Roper told the crowd, adding the mission was to build “the community of the future, not the community of yesterday."

The incorporation team organized its work into four phases: forming teams, training, community engagement and action. Volunteers went door to door, made phone calls and held conversations in churches and neighborhoods to ensure residents understood what incorporation would mean.

Roper said the primary motivation behind incorporation is community identity and the desire for fair representation. Residents, he noted, have long expressed frustration with service disparities such as slow responses to potholes, signage issues and other basic needs.

“Incorporation allows you to work in your community, work at work, and then do things that are going to make investments within,” Roper said. “As you make investments within, then your neighbors see what’s going on and they make investments in it.” 

Dr. Mae Richmond described the group’s early organizing work, noting that this attempt succeeded where earlier efforts stalled because the community was better prepared and better informed. She said the team prayed for guidance before beginning and then sought out people with expertise to help guide the process. “We organized and we researched,” she said, adding that residents would leave the meeting knowing Selmont can financially sustain itself as a city.

Organizer Erice Williams said some public records requests still have not been fulfilled, which he said shows “Selma has a blank canvas to take this journey on any path that we’re looking to go on.”

Volunteers described facing slammed doors, bees and dogs during outreach efforts, but continued because “it doesn’t take but one lie, one miscommunication to throw it off.” Their job, they said, was to ensure residents received accurate information and had a chance to ask questions.

Roper, who led the training effort, said the goal was to ensure every volunteer could communicate the same message clearly. Training sessions were held in person, online and at VFW’s facilities, which were opened to the group for meetings.

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Tenese Coleman-Johnson said she focused on reaching residents where they were: online, at home or in their neighborhoods. “We’re really boots on the ground,” she said.

Led by Commissioner Connel Towns, the team coordinated with elected officials whose districts touch the proposed city limits and ensured ministers and local businesses were informed. Organizers said they have spoken with 42 businesses in the area.

The final portion of the meeting focused on the only remaining piece of unfinished business: collecting enough signatures to place incorporation on the ballot.

With 2,700 registered voters in the proposed area, state law requires 15 percent, 405 signatures, to move forward. As volunteers brought in final paper petitions during the meeting, the total climbed from 421 to 469.

“We’re going to call it official,” Roper announced as the room erupted in applause. “This represents that this is what the community wants.”

Roper cautioned that some signatures may be duplicates or from residents outside the proposed boundaries, but they expressed confidence that the total far exceeds the required number.

The signatures will now be validated and delivered to the Dallas County Probate Judge’s office within the next 10 days. If approved, the county will order an election, possibly as early as May, where residents will vote yes or no on incorporation.

Roper said the proposed city boundaries stretch from the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge to Lakewood, and from County Road 140 near the flea market to the processing plant off County Road 141. Sustaining a city of 2,700 residents would require roughly $2.7 million annually, while taxes and business activity in the area are estimated to generate more than $4 million. That surplus, he said, would allow residents to decide how to invest in services such as police protection, a volunteer fire department and administrative operations.

“This isn’t saying every road is going to be paved,” Roper cautioned. “What this is saying is that the things that are important that you collectively come together and say—that’s what this $4 million investment will be going for.”

With signatures secured and validation underway, organizers said the next time residents gather may be to prepare for the vote itself.