FERRIDAY — Economic development, drainage and road work top the priority lists for the candidates seeking the Concordia Parish Police Jury district 4 place A seat.

Jerry Beatty

Incumbent Jerry Beatty has represented the district for the past four years, and he said he’s running to continue the work he has started.

“I got three of the four main drains for Ferriday cleaned out, and I am working on the fourth even though it is not in my district,” he said.

Beatty said his experience as a juror makes him the best candidate for the job, and he said he regularly attends the meetings of other local boards and works to recruit economic prospects.

“Economic development is our No. 1 need,” Beatty said. We need more money in here. We don’t need to raise taxes, we need to get more businesses in here and generate more tax revenue.

“We have 30,000 cars a day come through the main light in Ferriday — we need to use that to our advantage.”

Beatty characterized himself as a 24-7 police juror who always answers his phone and works on his constituents’ requests. Accountability is important, he said.

“I want to get some stuff done that hasn’t been done in the past,” he said. “I want to keep moving us forward.”

Beatty, 43, is a Democrat. He is married to Shannon and has three children, Heather, Jacob and Taylor. He graduated from Ferriday High School in 1987, and works for Entergy.

Curtis Nelson

A lifelong resident of the area, Nelson said he decided to run for one reason: “to improve my district.”

“I want to clean up all the trash in the ditches,” he said. “We will get down to fixing the road and everything.”

Nelson said he would be conscientious about attending police jury meetings, and that he is interested in seeing where his and other taxpayers’ money goes.

He said his experience as a business owner — Nelson owns Curtis’ Wrecker Service and also does dirt work — has served as good training for the police jury, including the duties of road and drainage maintenance.

“I am hands-on with people,” he said.

“I know how to do dirt work, and I know how to do ditches, and I know how it is supposed to be done.”

Those roads and ditches are two of the biggest issues the district needs to see addressed, Nelson said.

“Drainage is a big problem,” he said. “They need to get the trees out of the ditches. The second (issue) is roads. You can’t jump out and do it all at one time, but in four years you should be able to get something done.”

Nelson, 45, is a Republican and is married to Missy. He has two children, Michael and Haley. He graduated from Vidalia High School in 1986 and has been self-employed at Curtis’ Wrecker Service since 1997.