FERRIDAY — The Town of Ferriday’s New Year’s resolution is to make a plan to expand its city limits in 2011.

Mayor Glen McGlothin said the town will begin the planning stages of adding more land to the town’s limits early in January.

“We are going to meet at the first of the year to discuss the possible locations we can expand the town,” he said. “We need to lay the groundwork so we can get the process moving.”

McGlothin said he tried in the early 90s to expand the limits, but ran into problems when he tried to propose the idea.

“It never did fly,” he said. “We had too much opposition.”

McGlothin said he is unsure of how the planning for expanding the limits will go this time.

“It may happen this time,” he said. “I don’t want to try and take a large area and not receive it. We are going to focus on the areas we can get for Ferriday.”

McGlothin said it takes a lot for a town to expand its limits, and it would be a long wait before the town would see results.

“You have a lot of stuff to file,” he said. “We will have a lot of work to do. We are talking several months or years to lay the groundwork.”

Ferriday has to look at the pros and cons of expanding the limits before they decide on anything, McGlothin said.

“One of the cons is that the more you take in, the more you have to take care of,” he said. “You have to have water, sewage and other utilities to the areas we add.”

McGlothin said that currently Ferriday is landlocked, and that expanding the town could help expand business to the area.

“Obviously, if you can expand the limits, you can add some more tax base,” he said. “Adding more land will also bring in more economic development, and we can take in more businesses and maybe have the possibility for more grants for roads and sewage.”

McGlothin said the town has only one way to move at the moment.

“The only way we can go is toward Waterproof and Clayton,” he said.

McGlothin said the first of the year will be a busy time for Ferriday, and that he hopes expanding the town’s limits starts off smoothly.

“I just think we need to be realistic about what we can add to the town,” he said.