VIDALIA — If something isn’t done about Ferriday’s stalled business incubator and community center project soon, the consequences could be dire for the town, Feriday Downtown Revitalization Committee members said Wednesday.

The latest stall in the project, begun six years ago, is a big deal, President Anna Ferguson said.

The incubator, funded largely by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, would allow business owners who do not own their own buildings to start out in a town-owned property until they can find or afford their own location.

Monies for the project also came through capital outlay funds.

“When you have two federal agencies and the state involved, you have two different sets of requirements,” she said. “It’s very difficult.

Grant funds have to be spent by a certain time or they are rescinded, Ferguson said.

Twice already, the town powers-that-be had to go and ask for funds to be returned, she said.

“If it goes back this time, we will never see another cent,” she said.

“This money has to be paid by a certain point, and this project is already three years behind,” she said.

When committee member Liz Brooking asked if having a grant rescinded could get the town blacklisted for further grants, Ferguson said it could.

The planned incubator would be located in the building next to the Pasternak lot on First Street.

“This project has been troubled from the start,” Ferguson said.

The contractor that the town hired, Arkel Constructors Inc., recently pulled out of the project.

The architect that the town hired for the project, Chris Williams, said it was because the town had not paid Arkel according to plan.

Town officials, however, maintain that all payments have been made.

The project was also delayed by the the contractor in November because of structural integrity issues with the building.

The first delay to the project came when the contractors went over budget, Ferguson said.

The committee decided to send Ferguson to meet with Mayor Gene Allen and find out more facts about the situation, and to send a delegation representing their various organizations — the committee is made up of representatives from 25 Ferriday organizations — to the next town council meeting to discuss it.

“This (project) cannot fail,” Ferguson said. “It is affecting all of us, and it isn’t OK.”

In other business, Carol Tomko said that if Ferriday is granted Louisiana Historic Main Street status, the historic commission plans to use main street funds to beautify the Myers building in the downtown area by repainting it.

Local artist Alton Hall presented drawings of what the building would look like once beautified. Along with being painted, paintings of historic Ferriday figures — for example, Pee Wee Whitaker and Jerry Lee Lewis — would be placed in its windows.

All that is needed for the town to finish its application to become a certified local government, one of the steps toward gaining Main Street status, is for a legal description of the downtown area to be finished.

That description is being worked on by Bryant Hammett and Associates, Tomko said.