FERRIDAY, La. – A legislative committee on Friday approved a $100,000 grant that will allow a Ferriday clothing manufacturer to move into a building twice as big as its current facility.

Ferriday Mayor Glen McGlothin, who attended the hearing of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge, was confident of the town’s chances of getting the grant from the Louisiana Legislature. &uot;While we’re not a shoo-in, I’d say our chances are really good, … and it will mean a lot to this company,&uot; McGlothin said Thursday, referring to Mardy’s Contracting, which makes camoflage clothing and related products.

While Mardy’s co-owner Judy Cooper could not be reached for comment after the hearing Friday afternoon, she has been vocal in the past about how much the funds will help her company grow.

&uot;It’s so crowded in (our current facility) now that we have hardly have any elbow room,&uot; Cooper said.

Right now, the company’s 19 employees are located in a 2,560-square-foot building on Louisiana Avenue. The building it wants to move into on Mickey Gilley Avenue is twice that size. In the past, Cooper has estimated that Mardy’s could make 4,800 pieces of clothing a week in the larger building, compared with about 500 pieces a week now.

The company could also employ 12 to 15 more workers if it had the space, according to Buddy Spillers, president of the Ferriday-based Macon Ridge Economic Development Region.

Local officials say growing existing industries will help curb Concordia Parish’s high unemployment rates.

The parish reported top-three unemployment rates for several months before posting the state’s fifth-highest jobless rate in August with 9.7 percent, according to figures released Monday by the Louisiana Department of Labor.