The Town of Ferriday received the final installment — a $9,122 check — in the long-running water settlement this week.

The settlement stems from a July 1999 class-action lawsuit against the town when residents were given a 124-day boil water notice.

Ferriday filed a cross-suit against the other defendants in the suit, U.S. Filter and Owen and White engineering firm, and was given a settlement of $137,500.

Attorney Derrick Carson presented Allen with a check for $137,500 and a second check for $443,176 in December.

The $443,176 check would be used to pay off town debt to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which would then free up grant money to upgrade or replace Ferriday’s water treatment facility, Mayor Gene Allen said at the time.

The $433,176 debt was for loans to help maintain the town’s water treatment plant.

The town has currently hired engineering firm Bryant Hammett and Associates to do a study on replacing the tanks of the town’s water tower, Allen said.

“The study is not completed, but once it is done we will know where to go from there,” he said.

Checks of $325 were mailed to the citizens involved in the suit in December.

About $5,000 of those checks are have not been claimed, Allen said.

Some of the recipients who have not cashed their checks are deceased, but not all of them are, he said.

At the May 8 town council meeting, the city leaders commended water treatment officials for improvement over the last two years.