Need of a trim: Selma targets overgrown lot

Published 11:19 pm Thursday, June 14, 2012

The location that was once Cahaba Furniture is now a vacant lot with a bright future, but is currently overgrown with trees, bushes, weeds and plenty of other things that grow. The city has plans to clear the lot in the coming days. -- Taylor Holland

To many passersby, the Cahaba Furniture building appears to still be standing along Broad Street. In reality, however, that “building” is nothing more than a façade blocking the view of an overgrown courtyard behind it.

When the Cahaba Furniture building burned, Selma city officials decided to preserve its façade to try to maintain the city’s character and streetscape along Broad Street, its main thoroughfare.

The façade blended in with the other buildings along the street, so many may not have noticed it was nothing more than a wall — that is, until weeds from the empty courtyard behind the façade began to penetrate through it.

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Attempts to kill weeds growing in from behind the Cahaba Furniture façade have been unsuccessful thus far, and until the courtyard behind it can be rid of the weeds, the City of Selma Public Works Department will be in charge of the upkeep, according to Charlotte Griffeth, director of the Department of Planning and Development.

Griffeth said she submitted a request to weed around the façade “roughly a month or two ago,” and she expects the area to be tended to within the next few days.

“We’re still in the process of cleaning the back of the building where the Interpretive Center building is,” she said. “It’ll be taken care of very soon. The request is in, I inquired about it last week to see why it hadn’t been done. We’ll try to spray back there so that eventually we won’t have that overgrowth into the front of the façade.”

The city has plans to build a courtyard behind the façade once the area is cleaned up, Griffeth said. Although no timetable has been set on the project, she said initial plans include a water fountain and a door that allows visitors and residents to get off the street and relax in the courtyard.

“We’re going to continue with that as we continue to move down the street with the development of the Interpretive Center,” Griffeth said. “Federal funds just aren’t coming as quickly as they used to. Hopefully we’ll be able to complete it in the near future.”

Last year, most of the members of the Selma City Council dedicated portions of their discretionary funds to have buildings neighboring the Interpretive Center painted. City crews have — at times — cut back the growth, removing portions that had found their way through the façade.