FERRIDAY — The Ferriday Board of Aldermen decided against giving the police dispatchers a raise, since they could not raise salaries across the board.

Ferriday Police Chief Kenneth Hendrick sent a letter to the mayor requesting a raise for the dispatchers. Mayor Glen McGlothin and the board’s finance committee recommended accepting it.

“What they are doing is working here, learning how to be a dispatcher, and then they leave to go work with the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Department or Vidalia (Police Department) because they pay more,” McGlothin said. “We can’t keep anyone for more than eight months.

“I don’t like to pick and chose, but in this case, it is what we need to do if we want to keep good dispatchers.”

McGlothin said it was important to keep quality dispatchers because everyone interacts with them, and that makes their position very important, but the board voted unanimously to not provide any raises in the upcoming year.

“What you are doing is guaranteeing we will lose all of our quality dispatchers,” McGlothin said. “I hope to see all of us go through the computer training to be a dispatcher because that is what it is going to come down to.”

McGlothin said currently two dispatchers had applied to work elsewhere and three officers have applied to work at other agencies.

In other business, the board approved the 2010-2011 budget on the grounds that it can amend it at any time. The total revenues are $2,256,200 and the expenses are $2,133,250.

The board voted to transfer the garbage pick-up contract to Waste Management.

As of this evening, Waste Management will own Preferred Transport and part of the process involves taking over Preferred Transports previous agreement.

Waste Management will continue under the contract until it expires December 2013.

Andy Yates, WM Natchez site manager, said he aims for the transition to be as smooth as possible.

“We are buying Preferred Transport’s equipment, hiring the same drivers and jumpers,” Yates said. “The only thing that will change is the logo on the truck.”

The Office of the Louisiana Attorney General sent a letter stating that Water Plant Supervisor Gregory Griggs is not owed back pay for the time he was not employed. McGlothin laid Griggs off, but the board re-hired him with back pay in March.