At Tuesday’s Selma City Council meeting a group of college students and advisors from Merrimack College in Andover, Minn. were brought before the audience and council to thank them for their work in Selma over their spring break holiday.

For the past few years, students from the college have made an annual trip to Selma to help revitalize homes that would — as one city official said — have no doubt been condemned.

Now the homes these students, and students just like them from colleges and schools from throughout the nation, have helped repair are livable and presentable, no longer a blight on their neighborhood.

But while their work should be commended, their work should serve as a wake-up call to the land and property owners in Selma that this work should begin with you. It should not be the place of mission trips, student trips and other volunteers to come do our work for us. This is our home and we should take pride enough it in to ensure that properties are maintained and homes are livable.

Let these comments in no way temper those who would want to give up of their time with friends and family to come to Selma and help. We need the help and are thankful for it.

But the work these young men and women are doing should be the start and their efforts should carry on throughout the year and not just take place during the warm, breezy days of spring.

To the Merrimack College students who are here, thank you. Thank you for your help, your commitment and dedication to your fellow man and thank you for setting an example of selflessness that we should all try to emulate.