Local business owners and other community leaders will be making a trip to Chattanooga, Tenn. next week to learn how to improve Selma’s economy and riverfront. 

Representatives from the Selma and Dallas County Chamber of Commerce, the Selma City Council, the Arsenal Place Accelerator, ArtsRevive, Mayor George Evans’ office and other leaders will make their way to Tennessee to witness how Chattanooga’s economy and downtown have thrived.

“We’re going to get info on how they have a successful business incubator and accelerator,” said Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce Sheryl Smedley. “We want to know how they did it, how it grew and more.”

The Selma delegation will meet with Chattanooga’s mayor and other economic players. Smedley said there is a lot to gain from the trip.

“They have some areas that are like our city. It is a huge city,” she said. “However, there are things we can learn from them. We want to know how public and private partnerships worked together with government bodies to achieve economic goals.”

Like Smedley, executive director of ArtsRevive Martha Lockett wants to know how she and her nonprofit can build closer ties with government and business.

“At ArtsRevive, our mission is to support economic redevelopment in downtown Selma,” she said. “This is an opportunity to talk to a city who’s 25 to 30 years ahead of us in this. We want to know information from them, so we won’t have to reinvent the wheel. We can all be going in the same direction, while working with each other, and not over each other.”

The visit to Chattanooga is an opportunity for individuals and businesses to gather and speak with other professionals about what they’ve done right, Lockett said.

The group will leave Thursday and return the next day.

For more information about the trip, contact the Selma and Dallas County Chamber of Commerce at (334) 875-7241.