FERRIDAY — Efforts to pull Ferriday’s water system up by its bootstraps are intensifying, Mayor Glen McGlothin said.

“I have got to get the town off this boil-water notice is all I know,” McGlothin said.

Thursday, the mayor met with local engineer Bryant Hammett and representatives from the department of health and hospitals to discuss plans, with the eventual goal of presenting a long-term plan to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for financing.

“Right now, there is a lot of paperwork and calling back and forth,” he said.

The engineers are considering every avenue they can to address the ailing water system, McGlothin said.

“We might want to rehab a 20-year-old water plant, we might want to build a new one and we might want to find a new water source,” he said.

Those alternative water sources might come from running a new line directly to the Mississippi River, re-approaching local water districts about tying in to their lines or drilling wells, McGlothin said.

“That’s for the engineers to do,” he said. “I’ll sign off on it, but we have to do two things — we have to be able to pay it off and we have to see if it is the right thing to do.”

Meanwhile, the mayor has been collecting letters of support for the water system project from area leaders, ranging from Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland to U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander.

Police Jury President Melvin Ferrington said the police jury would give the town a letter of support if its officials asked for it.

“I think it is all of our responsibility to get water back to the city limits of Ferriday,” Ferrington said.