It’s been a tough few weeks for downtown Selma.

In that time frame, we’ve seen everything from a wonderful quality of life establishment, the Walton Theater, close and a large sinkhole nearly swallow up a downtown city park.

And, when it comes to what should be the anchor of Selma’s downtown redevelopment the historic St. James Hotel, we have seen less than a stellar beginning to the selection process for a company to lease the city-owned hotel.

Even before the application deadline had been reached, the special committee put together to make a recommendation to the Selma City Council held a public meeting and began opening some of the proposals. Again, this was done more than two weeks before the application deadline.

During the Times-Journal’s interview of some of the officials connected to the process, we learned that not only was the left hand not aware of what the right hand was doing, we learned the left hand and the right hand haven’t even met.

The committee leadership had not read the Request For Proposal (RFP) before it was even posted on the city’s website and advertised. And, the committee’s leadership was not aware that a Jan. 3 deadline had been established.

We sit here today hoping beyond hope for a Christmas miracle of sorts for a quality and qualified company to lead the St. James. We need the hotel to succeed; Selma needs the hotel to succeed.

But, we also sit here today somewhat concerned of the selection process and just how deep the committee is going to dig into the applicants to ensure we do not run into a situation we saw with the ill-fated hotel operations under Gourmet Services.

During the time Gourmet Services operated the hotel, city leadership appeared to have turned a blind eye, just taking comfort in that someone was running the hotel.

We have all learned how big of a mistake that was.

The hotel now is in need of tremendous repairs and continuous upkeep. But, more than anything, it is in need of strong, competent management.

Everyone should agree the selection process has gotten off to a rough start.

Only by admitting such can we feel confident changes have been made.

The St. James is far too important to not take this process seriously. We know how important it is. We hope others take the process as seriously.