FERRIDAY — Two Ferriday aldermen and Mayor Gene Allen began looking closely Thursday at a Baton Rouge company seeking to run the town’s water operations.

Allen and Aldermen Johnnie Brown and Elijah “Stepper” Banks met Thursday to begin reviewing a bid submitted by G.E.N.T’s Enterprises LLC.

“We did some vetting Thursday, but we still have some more checking to do to see if the company can handle the operations of the town,” Allen said. “We want to see what other places they have operated plants before and do some more research.”

The Baton Rouge company was the only one to submit a bid before the deadline. A bid from JCP Management, the town’s current management company, came in late.

At a specially called meeting last month, Allen vetoed a decision by the board seeking to accept the bid from G.E.N.T.’s.

At the town’s monthly meeting Tuesday, several Concordia Parish residents questioned whether the company was certified by the Department of Health and Hospitals. The residents also questioned if that certification would affect available federal loan funding to build a new plant.

Gregory Braud of G.E.N.T.’s said the Ferriday man they would contract to run the town’s operations, Gregory Griggs, is certified by the DHH.

Griggs previously served as supervisor of the Ferriday plant.

The DHH has four certification levels in each of three areas pertaining to water safety: production, treatment and distribution.

Required certification levels vary depending on the population of the town. The state requires class II certification in all three areas for Ferriday, since its population ranges between 1,000 to 5,000 people.

Braud said Griggs has class III certification, making him qualified to run the plant’s operations.

Braud said he has been personally dealing with water plant operations for more than 30 years and believes his company could help the residents of Ferriday.

“(The Ferriday plant) needs a lot of work,” Braud said. “We plan to come in and get them up and running and give the residents water they can actually drink instead of just bathing in it.

“All we want to do is come in and help the residents get some good, clean safe water at reasonable rates.”

The bid from G.E.N.T’s offered the town a rate of $18.75 per month, per customer. With 1,585 estimated customers in the town, the estimated rate the company provided town officials was $356,625, which also included salaries for employees at the plant and maintenance costs.

Part of the terms and conditions of Ferriday’s request for proposal for a new water management company stated that all bids would be evaluated using a grading point system, which ranks the proposals in categories such as qualified personnel, monthly fixed rates, hourly repair rates and prior experience operating similar systems.

Allen said the company’s prior experience is something he and the board want to triple check before making any decisions.

Braud said his company has worked with water systems in St. Tammy Parish as well as towns such as Jena and Kinder.

Allen said the matter would likely be put on the agenda for next month’s regularly scheduled meeting.