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The Selma City Council will be discussing a proposal at Monday night’s council meeting to see if they will support disbursements of the occupancy fee charged on hotel rooms.

The proposed ordinance on the table would split the money collected from the fee over the last three years to public safety, Edmundite Mission and the YMCA of Dallas County in the initial disbursement.

Council President Warren “Billy” Young said once those monies are distributed, all future fees collected by the occupancy fee would go all toward public safety.

The measure had its first reading at the April 22 meeting, but final approval could happen during Monday’s meeting, which was rescheduled due to the council not being able to have a quorum on the typical meeting night on the second Tuesday of the month.

Young said the council seemed favorable to the ordinance. He also invited representatives from the YMCA and Edmundite to address the council during a work session Thursday.

Dale Bell, a director with the Edmundite Missions, talked about the programs and other offerings at the center.

“We have reached a milestone of over 3,000 members and 2,500 visitors a month,” Bell said. “Holistically, we want to be a springboard for everyone that comes into our city. When someone comes down here, they can find something to do whether it’s athletics, some other kind of activity or fellowshipping with the community.”

Executive director Rashida Morgan and director of marketing Austin Williams addressed the council about how they would use the funds to expand the programs.

Williams said the local YMCA is in good standing with the national YMCA program. They also recently redid the indoor Olympic-sized swimming poll after it was closed for a couple of months. He said they replaced the pump and the heater in the pool.

They are also doing a lot of offering a number of programs including summer camp, which will begin shortly.

If the disbursement is approved, Williams said they would use it to help provide transportation for kids needing rides to the YMCA. He said they have a van right now, but they do not have the personnel to drive the van right now.

“Now, we are just asking for help to get that van running around town,” Williams said.

This is the reason why Young wanted to see this project move forward.

“That’s why we wanted to do this so that the YMCA can be enjoyed by all of our citizens and not let distance prevent them from doing that,” Young said.

The remainder of the funds would be used to help public safety, including the police and fire departments. What those funds would be used for was not discussed during the work session.

Currently, the city has been collecting a $2 per room per night occupancy fee on all hotel rooms for the past three years. The current ordinance said that proceeds from the fee would go to the YMCA of Dallas County and the closed Claude C. Brown branch of the YMCA.

However, the Brown YMCA has been closed, and the current contract to disburse the funds expired three years ago. The proposal on the table would do this one-time disbursement for all three entities. Once those funds are exhausted, future proceeds would go strictly to public safety.

The only revision to the proposed ordinance introduced on April 22 is that they would allow additional time for the YMCA or the Edmundite Mission to submit reports back to the council.

“We’re just going to make a few slight minor modifications in the contract,” Young said. “For instance, it says that the Edmundite Mission has three days to give us some information. We’re gonna give them a little more time, nothing material changes.”