FErriday — Ferriday town officials decided Tuesday to contact representatives from the Concordia Parish Neighborhood Watch program to help set up a similar program in Ferriday.

The decision was made after Alderman Johnny Brown brought up the topic at the aldermen meeting.

“Under the microscope, there is a degree of crime going on that a lot of people take for granted and are not aware that it is happening,” Brown said.

Having a program similar to Neighborhood Watch could help curb a lot of crimes, Brown said.

Mayor Glen McGlothin agreed with Brown, saying he supported the program.

“There’s one reason I believe in Neighborhood Watch, and that’s because if somebody is going to get hurt, it’s going to be somebody old or young,” he said. “Somebody gets into a fight and pulls out a gun and starts shooting, and it goes into a house and kills somebody just sitting there watching television who didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Brown also asked about having open and frank discussions about the municipal vision for Ferriday.

“Ferriday has some significant values that I don’t think we are taking advantage of,” he said. “Maybe we could use the venue of the newspaper, and they can talk about what Ferriday has been in the past and where it can go.”

McGlothin said the town has a master plan that was written in the 1990s, but that he is currently working on a new one relating to Ferriday’s historical, recreational and housing plans.

“Nobody is going to put a Nissan plant in Ferriday, but there are ways to build on (the town’s history) that can bring in a bunch of small (businesses),” he said.

“I would rather have a bunch of small (businesses) that produce four or five jobs, because they seem to last longer.”

In other news, McGlothin said that the recent cold weather has firmed up the ground at the municipal water plant so that work on the new water tank site could resume.

“They are out there getting the form ready, they are doing dirt work and form work as we speak,” he said. “They were supposed to finish the tank this week, and I assume they did.”

The new tank is being pre-fabricated offsite, and will be assembled at the water plant once it is finished and weather permits.

The second phase of the town water overhaul will be to get new water meters, and the third phase will be to build a new, $6.4 million plant, McGlothin said.

The meters will have to be installed first to help guarantee income.

“Right now, we have 500 broken meters, and we have no way to recoup that money,” McGlothin said.