Bids may soon be sought for water meters
posted Wednesday, January 30th, 2013 @ 3:52 pm

Ferriday Mayor Gene Allen said he expects the town to be advertising for bids for water meters in the next three months following a meeting last week with the USDA.

The government agency previously agreed to provide a grant and loan to build a new water plant and upgrade the town's water system infrastructure. But the town must meet USDA guidelines before all paperwork is completed.

After two previously scheduled meetings were postponed due to bad weather earlier this month, Allen met with the USDA officials on Jan. 23 at town hall where they discussed completing paperwork required by USDA to purchase new water meters through a grant.

"It was a very good meeting," Allen said. "We were a long way apart before this meeting and now we are very close. We've got all our paperwork in order and we're ready to move forward. I believe in the next three months we will be bidding out for meters and the whole project."

Glen Womack of JCP Management of Harrisonburg also attended the meeting. JCP is under contract as a third party to operate the town's water system. This third party operator is one of USDA's requirements from the town in order to receive a $5 million loan for the water system and a $1.4 million grant for the water wells.

Allen said the new meters should be in place in six months.

"As soon as we can get the bids out, it will be 30 more days before we can put them in," Allen said. "I'm ready to get this thing done. The one thing I wanted to accomplish is getting Ferriday's water problems solved. We are a lot closer now."

Allen said if the town had been unable to get permission to advertise for the meters he would have borrowed some from the Town of Jonesville. The Jonesville Town Council had previously agreed to the assist the town.

Allen said that will not be necessary now that the town is close to completing its required USDA paperwork to move forward on its own.