ALICEVILLE, Ala. (WIAT) — Aliceville mayor Terrence Windham is meeting with area businesses this week to look ahead to the city’s future to help spur growth.

“It is important to let businesses know this is a friendly city to bring businesses. But it’s also important to let people know we are recruiting,” Windham said. “We want to help infuse and encourage growth in our city and the best way to do that is to help the businesses that are here as well as trying to recruit other businesses to come.”

Mayor Windham met with 40 people from the business community this week, more than 15 in the group own businesses in Aliceville. Latona Davis supports the mayor’s plan to recruit new businesses to Aliceville. She owns a shop downtown and sells clothing, purses, cell phones and jewelry.

“I think it’s encouraging because you bring other people together other businesses together to give them ideas and we can talk together and make stuff happen to encourage other people to come in to bring more people in town to do more shopping and more people more money,” Davis said.

Windham wants to make this routine to meet with store owners four times a year.

“All the businesspeople pay taxes so at the end of the day they help fund the operations of the government so we want to see what it is we can do to help them. What we are trying to build here is a place where it’s easy for businesses to locate and hopefully that will create some living quarters and living areas where people want to build here like residences and apartments and colonial homes in Aliceville they will spend money here and schools will grow,” Windham said.

Mayor Windham says the next meeting will take place in January.