One Selmont area resident hoped more people would have come to Monday night’s meeting on annexation.

Towns also said that people needed to show concern for the community, and asked how the area could ever hope to incorporate when they couldn’t get enough residents together for a meeting.

Selma, Towns said, had shown it didn’t want to progress because it was fighting amongst itself.

Every person in attendance at Monday’s meeting would have to speak to someone that wasn’t present if the push to incorporate were ever to occur, Towns said.

Another Selmont resident, though, questioned why someone would come to a meeting when they didn’t understand the situation.

He added that the community needed some brain power to put a plan of action together and then have someone implement it.

William Meyer, a Selmont resident who spoke at the meeting, said that he didn’t think the community needed any more meetings.

A petition should be drawn up and circulated, Meyer said, and if enough signatures were gathered then Selmont could move towards incorporation.

Only two choices remained to Selmont: incorporate or have businesses along U.S. Highway 80 annexed by Selma, said Meyer.

Selma Councilman Sam Randolph, who was also in attendance, said that he wasn’t in favor in annexation or incorporation, but only of what made Selmont residents happy.

Randolph added that he didn’t think any Selma council person wanted to see Selmont be without fire and police protection.

One part of KPS Group’s annexation plan proposes the police jurisdiction be reduced to the Selma city limits. Darrell Meyer, KPS Group senior vice president, said that this would give people a reason to want to be annexed into the city.

Council members James Durry and B.L. Tucker, also in attendance Monday night, agreed with Randolph saying that they would never vote to remove Selmont’s police and fire protection.

Mae Richmond, a Selmont resident concerned with the issues of annexation and incorporation, said that the purpose of Monday night’s meeting was to bring information to Selmont residents that was learned at the last Selma City Council meeting.

Last Wednesday the Selma City Council met and heard from Selmont and Valley Grande residents about annexation. The council chose to table two resolutions concerning the annexation plan until state legislators could be heard from.

Some council members hadn’t had a chance to review the annexation plan, Richmond said, and asked if they could have the opportunity to review it.

The council also asked if Selmont residents could pay a little bit more for their police jurisdiction protection, Richmond added.