FERRIDAY — Ferriday Mayor Glen McGlothin said at last Tuesday’s aldermen meeting that the town would have a new liability insurance provider by Friday of last week and he stuck to his claim.

With rising insurance rates and a debt owed to the previous provider, Risk Management and Insurance, McGlothin said he saved the town a little money and was even able to use two local companies for the policy.

RMI had previously let Ferriday pay partial payments instead of full ones to the company for coverage, causing a debt to pile up for approximately 10 years that the town can’t pay.

Catahoula Insurance Inc. of Jonesville and Bill Mayer Insurance of Ferriday will both be providing services to the town, McGlothin said.

“We got both of them involved,” he said. “We talked with both of them to see if they could split the fees, and they agreed, so we are using both.”

McGlothin said the companies gave Ferriday the same quote for their services.

“They came up with the same exact price to the penny,” he said. “It worked out good for us and for them.”

McGlothin said the split coverage is not something new to Ferriday.

“I was originally going to give both of them a chance at it. Using one of them this year and the other for next year,” he said. “But they came up with an agreement and we have done it before with good results, so that is what we did.”

McGlothin said the switch will save Ferriday several thousands of dollars a year, but due to additions made to the policy; the final cost for the new policy is still unavailable.

The change from a national company to local companies will also help keep money local, McGlothin said.

“That is why I was trying to get local companies for the policy,” he said. “We need to keep as much money in the area as we can.”

McGlothin said with the liability insurance situation finally under control, he is now focusing his efforts on finding new health insurance for town employees.

“Health insurance has gone up 10 percent again this year. Everything is skyrocketing,” he said. “We currently have someone shopping around looking for better deals so we can save some money there too.”