FERRIDAY — Shortly after new Ferriday Mayor Sherrie Jacobs’ swearing in ceremony Friday, the Ferriday Board of Aldermen failed to approve a resolution for her to represent the town before the bond commission so payroll could be met.

Jacobs said the state bond commission would give the town a line of credit to go to a bank to borrow money to help the town make payroll. The town would have until March 1 to pay the bond commission back, and the mayor said should be enough time as she’d work toward making the town pay for itself.

Jacobs said she does not yet know how much she will ask for, as the new mayor does not yet know what payroll costs are as the previous administration did not meet with her to help get her acclimated to where the town stands financially, including payroll.

“The last time I spoke to (former mayor) Gene Allen was at a political forum before the election,” she said.

New alderman Glen Henderson offered a motion for the resolution for the mayor to appear before the bond commission, but the motion died for a lack of a second.

Jacobs said the city would call a special session at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday to attempt to pass the resolution again.

“We will be ready for payroll,” she said. “Without it, we might could meet payroll for a month, but that would be about it.”

The board also did not offer a second on a motion to approve the town clerk and town attorney positions. Amanda Gagnard was being offered as town clerk and former town attorney Anna Ferguson had agreed to accept the position again.

Jacobs said she would temporarily appoint Gagnard and Ferguson to serve in these roles and would work with the board to come up with long-term solutions.

“There is always room for compromise,” she said. “I certainly want to work with the board, and I want the board to work with me.”

Arthur Lewis was approved as police chief, Joe Sontoyo as fire chief, Veller Ray Carroll as sewer department head and Jerry Beatty as the street superintendent. Beatty’s appointment passed 3-1 with Gloria Lloyd voting nay and Johnny Brown absent, and the others passed unanimously.

Despite the troubles with the specially called meeting, Jacobs said her first day as Ferriday mayor was good.

“I have a dynamic team and we are going to go in hustling and bring Ferriday back from the brink of death,” she said. “I’m proud to be a part of that team.

“My door is always open to all of them and to all of you. I love you. Go Ferriday!”

Lewis said it’s a blessing for him to come back home to Ferriday and help the town with its police department.

“I know Ferriday is ready to succeed, we just have to put God first in everything we do and not look back into the past, but move into the future,” he said. “We need the support and prayer of each and every person of Ferriday.”

Sontoyo said he and the fire department are ready to do their part.

“People are ready to make Ferriday a good place like it used to be,” he said. “The fire department is ready to drill down and do whatever we can to make sure it happens.”

Beatty, who also serves on the Concordia Parish Police Jury, said he believes a pending attorney general opinion will clear him to serve as a juror as well as a department head for Ferriday. Alderman Glenn Henderson, who was sworn in Friday, was recently cleared to serve on the Concordia Parish Recreation District No. 3 by the Attorney General.

“Ferriday is my home, I was born and raised here, and I love it,” Beatty said. “I think Ferriday can come back, but it’s going to take the whole town coming together.

“I look forward to the community coming together.”

Henderson, who has served as an alderman before, said Friday was a great day for the town — Ferriday was on the road to improvement.

“You could tell by the number of people in attendance that people are fired up and think we can do some great things,” he said of the crowd of more than 50 at the swearing-in ceremonies.

“We’ve got to go back to the basics and take care of people. We need to create a clean down and provide opportunities for our citizens.”

Chryl Smith Lee, who was sworn in as a first-term alderman, said this is the beginning of something new.

“My plans center around economic development,” she said. “We need more businesses, entrepreneurs and more development in our town and with that provide more jobs to take care of our people.”

Lloyd said she was approaching the new administration with a wait and see attitude.

“We’ll see how it goes,” she said.

Gail Pryor said she’s been doing this for 20 years and she thanked the people for four more.

“Ferriday is my home town,” she said. “I wish nothing but the best for it.”