VIDALIA — A name change may make one parish institution a little easier to find when renovations to its facilities are complete in the next six to 10 months.

Central Louisiana Technical College Shelby Jackson Campus is requesting to drop Shelby Jackson from the title and change it to Ferriday to make the campus easier to find for people not from the area.

“A lot of people do not know where the school is at when they hear Shelby Jackson,” Concordia Parish Police Jury member Jimmy Jernigan said. “If you change it to Ferriday, people will know where it is.”

The jury approved issuing a letter of support to the college for the name change at its meeting Monday night.

“It just feels like an opportune time to change it,” Jury President Melvin Ferrington said.

Ferrington said the school issued the jury a letter saying it wanted the change to coincide with the completion of a current campus renovation and expansion project.

Ferrington said the school will still be commemorating Shelby Jackson by naming the newly renovated main campus building after Jackson.

In other news:

4 The jury voted to have engineers get the right of way to clean out a trouble spot in Cocodrie Bayou near the Vidalia Canal.

Ferrington said the drainage committee meeting revealed that the bayou made it through the Mississippi River flood in better shape than anticipated.

“There is really only the one spot near where the Vidalia Canal runs into Cocodrie,” he said. “It is holding some water up there, and all we need to do is get the right of way to go in and clean it up.”

4 The jury voted to contact Missouri-Pacific Railroad to see who owns grain storage tanks that sit on railroad-owned property in Ferriday. The tanks were previously owned by Cross Grain, but were adjudicated to the parish.

Ferrington said he wants the jury to make sure they own the tanks before crews go in and take the tanks off the land.

“If we removed them from the property and sold them and the railroad said they were theirs, we would have to pay for it,” he said.

Ferrington said the jury has attempted to acquire the tanks from Cross, but Jury Treasurer Hazel Dickson said the jury still does not have the title. Ferrington said the jury will contact Missouri-Pacific, and if the tanks belong to the parish, they will work to remove them as quickly as possible.

4 The jury tabled a request for a letter of support for rehabilitation projects from the owner of the Ferriday Elderly Apartments.

The jury received a letter from the owner at their first meeting in July, and decided since they did not know the owner, or what he was planning on doing with the complex, they would wait to meet with him before making a decision.