SELMA — For the last two months, city of Selma department heads and workers have prepared a show-and-tell of sorts.

Tuesday night they carried their demonstrations to the Larry D. Striplin Performing Arts Center and set them up for city residents to come by and see how their tax dollars are spent.

Mayor George Evans said he got the idea from Tuscaloosa when he was there scouting out an amphitheater for the Riverside Park project. Mayor Walter Maddox said his city does the same thing.

“We just modified it and put it in our own way,” Evans said.

Tuesday night featured departments included human resources, the city clerk, technology, public buildings, the cemetery and community development.

Fire chief Mike Stokes stole the show with various demonstrations of how to protect life and property from fire. The department also had a ongoing slide show demonstrating firefighters in action.

The cemetery department set up a makeshift funeral parlor, complete with a steel blue coffin and a mannequin. Cemetery department supervisor Mike Pettaway sat next to the coffin and sprays of flowers.

“We couldn’t very well bring in a hole or dirt,” laughed secretary Katie Brown. “This is what we do.”

Refreshments and a table set for a banquet highlighted the public building’s displays. The ceramics building featured artwork by local talent.

City Clerk Ivy Harrison had voter rolls and other election information spread out and other documents prepared to demonstrate some of the tasks assigned to her office.

The rest of the city’s departments will hold their show-and-tell Thursday from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center.

“We plan to do this annually to try to create more dialogue with the taxpayers and the public servants who work for the city,” Evans said.