NATCHEZ — The Ferriday Board of Aldermen voted in its meeting Tuesday night to allow the town to borrow money in order to pay for a road repair project.

The board of aldermen voted to authorize the issuing of a general obligations bond, which will be discussed in more detail in next month’s meeting, when the town’s bond attorney will be present.

Ferriday Mayor Gene Allen said the project was long overdue.

“We got to get our streets fixed,” Allen said, “The only reason we’re going to be able to get them fixed is because of what we just passed.”

Allen asked the aldermen to turn in a list of streets and areas in their districts that need repaving.

District D Alderman Johnnie Brown said the list would be difficult to write for his ward.

“We need to start with the premise that all of them need to be overlaid,” Brown said. “It hasn’t been done in 15, 20 years. I know in my district, it’s pretty bad.”

The aldermen specifically mentioned Tenth Street, which runs along several districts, as a road badly in need of repair.

Mark Andel, owner of Crescent Chemical, came before the board to ask them to consider a plan to begin making payments on the approximately $125,000 judgment the company was awarded against the town in October for unpaid bills.

The company provided emergency water treatment chemicals and services in Ferriday during a period in which the town was not meeting basic safety regulations, Andel said. The courts decided the town still owed Crescent Chemical $112,000 for its goods and services, plus approximately two years of interest.

Andel said previously the court’s deadline for the parties to reach an agreement on payment plans was Jan. 5, 90 days after the judgment was signed. A hearing will be held to determine whether the town will now be responsible for court costs, which can add as much as 30 percent.

“I just wanted to ask the council if we could come to some kind of agreement,” Andel said at the meeting. “We know the town is not a town that has a lot of money. We’re willing to work with y’all, but we really are trying to get paid.”

Andel asked the council to consider Crescent Chemical as part of its financial discussions, including the issuance of bonds to cover its debts in regards to the road repair project.

“When you’re talking about bonds, if you’d think about us, we’d really appreciate it,” Andel said.

Dorothy Oliver, executive director of LaSalle Community Action Association Inc., came before the board to discuss the renovation of the Ferriday Shopping Center in order to allow Head Start, an intensive early childhood education project, to relocate to Ferriday.

The project is currently housed in Clayton, but Oliver said she hopes to return it to Ferriday, where it was operating in the 1990s, so it could serve as a more central location to other sites in the area.

The education program would renovate the existing dialysis clinic and Family Dollar facilities to include nine classrooms, a computer lab, a kitchen and several restrooms.

Head Start is directly funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Oliver said.

In other news:

— Justin Conner, who is running for mayor of Ferriday, came before the board to ask for a refund for his water service reconnection fee.

Conner said his understanding was that last month’s town council action would not allow his water service to be cut off due to unpaid bills. He has since paid his bills in full, but asks the council to reimburse him for the reconnection fee of $105.

District E Alderwoman Gloria Lloyd told Conner the board’s action was limited to a list of specific people whom the council knew to be behind on water bills for reasons out of their direct control. Those people would be allowed to make gradual payments and catch up by April 22.

Mayor Gene Allen invited Conner to meet with him so they could discuss the board’s action and any reimbursement that they may owe Conner.