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FERRIDAY, La. — Town of Ferriday officials voted to renew the town’s water contract with JCP Management Inc. during a meeting on Tuesday.

The contract includes a $4 cost increase for residents.
The reason for the rate increase is because the town has fewer customers, while with inflation, the cost to provide the service has gone up, owner Glen Womack said.

The board previously approved raising residential rates for water, sewer and trash collection in December 2024. The new rate that went into effect on Feb. 1 is $57 per month for residential customers for the first 2,000 gallons consumed, then $7 per thousand gallons after that. Commercial rates are $128 for the first 2,000 gallons, then $7 per thousand.

Womack said the contract includes that increase with no additional added.

Only the town’s base rate increases from $20.50 per month to $24.50, Womack said.

“We’ve been in partnership with Ferriday since 2014,” he said. “Inflation from 2012 to 2025 has been about 34 percent. A lot of that has been in the last couple of years. This here is only about a 17 percent increase.”

Womack added, “Where we were operating with 1,500 customers, we now have about 1,300. But our cost to produce the water remains the same with 200 fewer customers.”

Ferriday Alderman Andre Keys asked whether the use of chloramine opposed to other chemicals would affect Ferriday’s water rating, which is currently an F.

Womack said JCP has tried other processes to mitigate Ferriday’s trihalomethane issue — a chemical compound commonly found in drinking water that poses risks to human health at high concentrations over extended periods of time.

“We’ve tried different processes to keep the cost down, but none of them worked,” Womack said, adding the Louisiana health department recommended chloramine as the only chemical that should fix the issue.

“You do the treatment process with chloramine; that should take 30 points off of it and put Ferriday back up to where we need to be on the grade book,” he said.

In Monterey, where a lawsuit has recently been filed due to poor water quality, the water system has a C grade. The class action lawsuit was filed March 7 against JCP Management, Inc. and Monterey Rural Water System, Inc. by a group of residents who say they have suffered damages or losses from the companies’ failure to provide clean, safe, potable water.

“If Monterey can get a C, why cant Ferriday have an A?” Keys said. “Monterey has a C, and they have a lawsuit out. Make that make sense.”

The Alderman unanimously voted in favor of the new contract as presented with one exception. Womack asked for a three-year contract and the aldermen agreed to two years to see if the town’s water rating improves by that time.

In other matters during Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Alvin Garrison and Zach Glidden, sales representative of River City Hydraulics based in Walker, presented the aldermen with a proposal to lease a garbage truck and purchase trash bins for the town to conduct its own trash collection service rather than contracting such service.

Garrison said the town’s existing contract with Waste Pro does not end until 2026. However, he has been talking with the town attorney to see if they are able to end the service sooner and cut the town’s cost without increasing the cost for residents.

Glidden said the town can cover all expenses of trash collection for $13,600 month, including the lease of the truck and the employees to drive and collect trash. The town would also need to cover insurance. The town currently pays Waste Pro $23,000 per month but collects only $17,000 from residents for the service, Garrison said.

“How can we keep paying $23,000 and we only collect $17,000?” he said.

The trash proposal was only presented with no action taken on it during Tuesday’s meeting.

Aldermen also adopted resolutions allowing the town to refinance its Limited Tax Refunding bonds and General Obligation Bonds to pay off debts inherited from the previous administration. The refinancing of the bonds had been approved by voters during a special election held in December of 2024.