FERRIDAY, La. – Construction on an apartment complex for the elderly should begin by the end of this year, local economic development official Buddy Spillers said Monday.

&uot;Once word got out that we got our permits, people started calling in, inquiring about the development and when people could start moving in,&uot;&160;said Spillers, president of the Macon Ridge Community Development Organization, which is developing the 38-unit complex on Lincoln Road just outside Ferriday.

The Ferriday Town Council on July 11 approved water and sewer service to those apartments as well as another complex developer Craig Smith is also seeking to build on Lincoln Road for low-income people.

On July 17, the Police Jury approved a permit to build the Macon Ridge complex.

Construction on the apartments still has some hurdles to overcome. For example, Macon Ridge must arrange interim financing for the project, Spillers said.

And federal funding for sewer lift station construction and improvements will not be available until next year.

Smith has promised to contribute $20,000 to improve a sewer lift station serving the area. Macon Ridge will contribute $25,000, leaving the town, with Macon Ridge’s help, to raise $31,000.

And Smith, whose development has not yet been approved by the Concordia Parish Police Jury, and Macon Ridge must still build other sewer lift stations next to their apartment complexes, Ferriday Mayor Glen McGlothin has said.

Otherwise, sewage could not flow to the town’s sewer system due to gravity.

But Spillers said Macon Ridge’s complex will be built and ready to operate by the end of 2001 — it has to, according to the terms under which it received federal funding for the almost $2 million project.

BAS Construction of Rayville — the same firm that is currently building an expansion of the Concordia Parish Correctional Facility near Ferriday — will build Macon Ridge’s complex.