VIDALIA — Concordia Parish officials preparing to begin a new four-year administration on July 1 will be sworn in Friday and Saturday.

Vidalia Police Department

Police Chief Arthur Lewis will be sworn in at 1 p.m. on Friday at city court on Texas Street, with a reception to follow at the police department.

After getting sworn in on Friday, Lewis will get a short break before swearing in the approximately 50 police department employees starting at 12:01 Sunday morning.

“We’ll have all the employees rotating throughout their shifts to make it easier,” Lewis said. “It will take us some time, but we’re excited about getting started.”

In March, Lewis won the election for Vidalia police chief against opponent Todd Ainsworth in a 51 percent to 49 percent finish.

Lewis — who won a special election for the seat in April 2011, after serving as chief on an interim basis for five months — will begin his first four-year term on Monday.

“The people of Vidalia put me in this position to enforce the law and that’s what I’m going to do,” Lewis said. “We have some programs we want to implement and other things we want to get done, but the safety of our citizens is most important.”

Town of Ferriday

Ferriday Mayor-elect Gene Allen will have his inauguration as mayor at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Haney’s Big House Music Mall on First Street.

Allen, a former mayor of Ferriday, won the race for mayor against challenger Joe Sontoyo, the Ferriday fire chief, in a run-off election in April.

Town of Clayton

Clayton incumbent mayor Rydell Turner, Police Chief Clarence “PaPa” Skipper and the Clayton Town Council will have an inauguration celebration at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday at Town Hall.

Dr. Ernest Johnson, president of the Louisiana NAACP and National NAACP board member, will preside over the ceremony.

Turner, Skipper and all town council members ran unopposed in March’s election.