Selma and Dallas County will see an influx of traffic this weekend — in particular, river traffic. Between the two-day $10,000 Super Event Friday and Saturday, which is Cabela’s King Kat Tournament Trail and Saturday’s Valley Grande Buddy Bass Fishing Tournament, not to mention normal weekend boaters, Elton Reece, director of the Selma Parks and Recreation Department, said the Alabama River could see an excess of more than 180 boats coming in and out the Selma Marina this weekend.

“It’s a busy weekend, plus there’s the regular boaters that go in and out of the marina,” Reece said. “So we’ve got a lot of activities going on down there this weekend.”

With an influx of people, boats, trailers and trucks heading towards the marina, Reece urged all boaters to be aware of the conservation rules and regulations of water travel the city has adopted in addition to the rules of the river.

While the majority of people putting their boats in the Selma Marina this weekend have done so before, Reece said the biggest problem comes when people are leaving or coming into the marina area from the main body of the river.

“The biggest problem is when they all start coming in at the same time,” he said. “You have to be careful because the entrance coming into the marina, out into the river is narrow.”

Reece said that as long as people are cordial and respectful of each other, the influx of river traffic shouldn’t be an issue. However, with an influx of river traffic, comes an influx of people, and Reece said he’s hoping the hotels and restaurants in town are well prepared — not only for this weekend but for the next several weekends.

“As far as the city and the recreation department are concerned, one month ago my office made up fliers to let the eating establishments and all the hotels know that [more people were coming]. We made it very clear,” he said, noting that last year multiple hotels were overbooked and could not handle the large crowds.

“It won’t happen like it did last year. We’ll make it better. All we can do is our police force has been put on notice, so they’re beefing up their security, and all the hotel owners and eateries for sure know that they’re [coming],” Reece said. “It can’t help but be better, so I’m enthused about that.”