FERRIDAY — Three men are vying for the alderman’s seat for Ferriday’s District B.

Candidates are Elijah “Steppers” Banks, Allen O. Froust and “Chris” Chatman, and the majority of the candidates say Ferriday needs economic development and independent thinkers.

Elijah “Steppers” Banks

The incumbent candidate, Elijah “Steppers” Banks, 69, was elected to the seat in 2008. Previously the owner of Club Steppers, before coming to Ferriday Banks worked as a contractor in Jacksonville, Fla., for 20 years.

Banks said he is running for reelection because he has work that he wants to finish and new ordinances he wants to introduce.

Those ordinances include one that would allow Southern University to come in and develop a 25-year comprehensive plan for the town, to have Cocodrie Bayou cleared and have fishing docks added and further develop the town’s recreation programs. He also said he likewise wants to de-velop a street overlay pro-gram and bring more housing to the area.

All of that forms a compre-hensive whole to improve the quality of life for those al-ready in town and to attract new people and businesses, Banks said.

The master plan will help direct how things are devel-oped so town leaders can be more focused, he said.

“You need a master plan to work from,” he said. “When you get Ferriday going for-ward and get a new company to come in, when it comes in that is going to bring good paying jobs, and you will make Ferriday attractive to other people to come to Ferri-day — but when you do that, we have got to have good housing for these people, too.”

Banks has one year of col-lege from Jacksonville Junior College, and four adult chil-dren who live in Texas.

Allen O. Froust

Allen O. Froust, 75, said he decided to get in the race for the alderman’s seat because he wanted to see what he could do and because he wanted to run for something.

He also decided to run be-cause he wanted to put more options on the ballot for vot-ers, Froust said.

The candidate said he felt he was as qualified as anybody in the race, and that as an alderman he would be inde-pendent when it came time to decide on issues that came before the board of aldermen.

“I think whenever you vote, you don’t need to be a yes man and just vote for it because the mayor wants it,” he said. “I think you need to vote the way you see right.”

Froust worked in the oil in-dustry for more than 40 years. He has a GED, and two chil-dren, Allen Shane Froust and Christian Jakobi Froust.

“Chris” Chatman

The third candidate in the race, “Chris” Chatman, could not be reached for comment Friday or over the weekend.