A Ferriday group has plans to help restore downtown, and they’re on their way to making those plans a reality.

Ferriday Downtown Revitalization Foundation Chairwoman Anna Ferguson said the group’s banquet Thursday, aimed at educating people about its goals, was a success.

“It went really well,” Ferguson said. “We had about 56 people attending, which was great.”

The biggest goal for the foundation in the near future is to become part of the federal Main Street program, through which funds are available.

“They have grant money available for towns that qualify to help business owners and landowners maintain their historic buildings,” she said.

The first step toward achieving this is to qualify with the state government as a Certified Local Government, or CLG, which identifies the community as working toward preserving its history.

“Recently, an ordinance was passed that would qualify Ferriday as a Certified Local Government,” Ferguson said. “This allows the foundation to make an application for the town of Ferriday in the Main Street program.”

A historic commission will be able to help building owners by giving their stamp of approval to renovation and new construction.

“The foundation is important because some federal and private money is available only to private foundations,” she said. “We will begin to qualify for monies under the Main Street program to help preserve and maintain older buildings.”

The foundation’s next project will be a second Clean Sweep to prepare for the Delta Music Festival scheduled for April. Another Clean Sweep took place in the fall.

“Local groups worked together to clean up downtown,” she said. “We worked together to plant flowers, scrub windows and decorate storefronts. It made a big difference.”

As for long-term projects, the group has discussed giving downtown building facades a facelift.

“We’ll maybe get the owners matching funds and work with a historical architect to come up with historically accurate facades for each of the buildings.”

But that’s farther down the road, Ferguson said.

“We’re sort of taking it a step at a time.”