For four local Selma men, opening a business in the Queen City is an opportunity to serve the community in more ways than one. 

Brad Utsey, Will Pearce, Brennan Nedley and David Pearce Jr. recently opened Cleaner Clothes Dry Cleaning on Dallas Avenue with hopes of offering outstanding customer service while also giving back to local charities.

“With us all being here and living here, we’re here for the long haul,” Will said. “We just want to support the community. We’re going to be very giving in this community if this business goes well.”

The dry cleaners opened up Monday morning after weeks of planning and getting everything in place.

“Everything takes a little longer than expected to get started, but we’re excited and ready to go,” Will said. “We just want to put a good product out and [have] a quick turnaround.”

The cleaners are located at 1917 W. Dallas Ave., across from Winn-Dixie. The four owners decided to open the business because of talk that one was needed in the area.

“Really there’s just nothing on this side of town. A lot of people said we needed something over here and dry cleaning was one of them,” Utsey said. “Our goal was to get this one up and going and keep doing stuff in the same lines on this side of town; maybe a laundry mat or something in that area.”

With three schools in a two-mile radius from the cleaners, Utsey said it was a great location for parents to be able to drop off their children for school, swing by the cleaner and drop off their clothes and pick both up in the afternoon without having to take a lunch break just to visit the dry cleaners.

“You don’t have to stop,” Utsey said.

“We have a drive through. No other cleaner in Selma has a drive through.”

The cleaners are also offering an environmentally friendly K-4 solvent, the only one in Alabama, according to Utsey.

This means they are using a safe cleaning system that poses no risk to the environment, and it’s something that Will and Utsey said they are both proud of. Overall, the owners said it was all about the community.

From offering the services in general to employing seven locals, and from spending money in the Queen City to giving back to its charities, they said they’re all in for Selma.

“We have room to double in size and we’ll do more if we see that business is doing that well,” Will said.

“We just want to keep as much business in Selma as possible, as many dollars in Selma as possible and share that amongst the community also to give to charities.”

The cleaners are open Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon, and can be reached at 605-1111.