Ferriday: Get your forks, spoons ready

Published 12:03 am Wednesday, September 12, 2012

FERRIDAY — Ferridians and the thousands of travelers that drive through Ferriday each day could soon see a new restaurant on the familiar streets.

Mayor Gene Allen said Tuesday evening during the board of aldermen meeting that he and other city representatives would be traveling to Mansura, La., this week to meet with a restaurant that has expressed interest in locating to Ferriday.

“It’s still in the early process, but they called us so we think they’re very interested,” Allen said after the meeting. “We’re going to go meet with them in the next few days and see if we can start approving that.”

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The town signed a confidentially agreement with the business, so the name of the establishment could not be released.

The board also went into executive session for 20 minutes to discuss a prospect interested in locating to the Ferriday Industrial Park, but Allen said no action was taken.

That prospect, with which the city also signed a confidentially agreement, would take over the former Kelly’s Kids building on Louisiana 15 for warehouse and distribution purposes, with plans to expand to a manufacturing facility in the future.

“We have several prospects the town is currently looking into,” Allen said.

In other news from the meeting:

-Allen asked each alderman to submit two roads from their corresponding districts to be considered as part of a possible overlay project.

The 10-street project was initially brought up under the previous administration by former-Mayor Glen McGlothin.

The board heard from a representative of Bryant Hammett and Associates LLC about the possible need of extending the town’s street millage to pay for the project.

“I think we need to put the cart before the horse here,” Allen said. “If each alderman will bring the list of two streets that need overlaying, then well get them to the city engineer to get a cost figure, and then we’ll talk about extending the bond.”

Allen asked each aldermen to bring the names of their two streets to next month’s board meeting.

-After seeing a recent increase of mosquito infestation in the area, Allen said the town’s mosquito abatement program will start back up this week.

“We purchased the chemicals last week and put the machine on the truck, but we need to get it calibrated to start spraying,” Allen said. “We’ll get that calibrated this week and start spraying, because that’s a big issue right now.”

As of Friday, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals reported 31 new cases of West Nile virus, bringing this year’s total to 176 reported infections and 10 deaths from the virus.

Three cases of the West Nile virus have been reported in Concordia Parish and one in Catahoula Parish.

The truck will spray three days a week throughout the town, Allen said.