VIDALIA — A delegation from Concordia Parish is heading to Washington, D.C., to meet with federal officials and lobby for grant funding for local projects.

The main thrust of the trip is to seek funding to complete the four-laning of the portion of U.S. 84 known as the El Camino corridor. The corridor runs from Brunswick, Ga., through El Paso, Texas. Getting the corridor four-laned is a matter of economic development for the Miss-Lou, Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said.

“It is an ongoing process to get Louisiana funded to bring (the highway) up to the same level as the other states,” he said. “Most of them are at 86 percent completion — we are the weak link.”

But Copeland said the delegation plans to keep with its yearly tradition of not limiting their trip to the nation’s capital to discussion of the highway project.

“The old saying is that the squeaky wheel gets greased,” Copeland said. “I am in my ninth term (in politics), and I can say that those who don’t go to Washington, who don’t talk to their (legislative) delegation, a lot of their projects are not funded.”

Ferriday Mayor Glen McGlothin said this trip will be about finishing projects he has started, and he wants to be sure legislators know what the town is trying to do.

“I want to see them eyeball-to-eyeball and tell them what is going on and make sure they are filled in on it,” he said.

One item Copeland said he will particularly lobby for will be further funding for the Vidalia port project.

“With the emphasis being put on infrastructure in the new budget, we feel we have a good chance of getting more funding for the port,” he said.

McGlothin said he, too, would lobby for the port. He said he is working with an economic prospect for Ferriday, and the port would be an added incentive for the company to come.

“The company I am trying to get, they will actually use the port when they haul something in here, when they bring in raw materials, they will use the port,” McGlothin said. “I am doing it for selfish reasons — I want Vidalia to get the port, but Ferriday will benefit from it.”

Another water-based project McGlothin said he will lobby for will be to get any kind of grant funding he can for a new Ferriday water plant.

“I am going to try to get my last hurrah with this water plant, to make sure that when we build it we are not going to break the town,” he said.

Copeland said another project the Vidalia group will try to work their delegation on is for funding for a broadband Internet infrastructure project.

“When we get this broadband project finished, it is going to be one of the biggest economic incentives for people to move into the Miss-Lou area,” Copeland said. “It is going to move us to he forefront in bringing technology to our area.”

Other members of the delegation will include Vidalia City Manager Ken Walker, IT Director Bob Busic, Director of Installation Bobby Paul and Concordia Parish Economic Director Heather Malone.

Riverfront Director H.L. Irvin and Sheri Rabb, marketing representative for the Vidalia Convention Center, are both members of the El Camino Commission, and will make the trip as well.