FERRIDAY — An angry crowd of protestors filled Ferriday Town Hall Thursday night to air their grievances about the town’s water situation, but the emergency meeting scheduled for then never happened because of a lack of a quorum.

When town water clerk Cotrina Johnson, filling in as meeting reporter, made the roll call, every name but two — Johnnie Brown and Elijah “Steppers” Banks — was met with silence.

Along with Alderwoman Gloria Lloyd, Banks signed the notice to call the special meeting. He said he did so because whenever his constituents asked him about the water situation, he didn’t have any answers.

On the agenda were for the mayor and water supervisor to update the aldermen about the water situation and to discuss possible solutions.

“My concern personally is that we shouldn’t have this type of problem,” Banks said. “This is not a third world country — I am with the people.”

But when Brown — who said he was acting as mayor pro-temp because Mayor Glen McGlothin had previous out-of-town arrangements before the meeting was scheduled — tried to end the meeting for lack of a quorum, the people were not with him.

Alderman Jerome Harris’ brother Hymes Harris Jr. stopped Brown as he attempted to end the meeting.

“Just because you have some parliamentary procedure, that doesn’t give you the right to not give these people here the human courtesy to listen to them,” Hymes Harris said.

Pointing at Brown and then Banks, he said, “I am not going anywhere. This is my town, and I will fight you, you and my brother.”

The Rev. Justin Conner, president of the Concordia-Catahoula NAACP And the Tri-Parish Ministerial Alliance, said the situation was only going to get worse.

“For the next three-to-five years, it is going to be worse than the West Nile virus and worse than the swine flu, because we can’t get any answers,” Conner said.

After a few more heated moments, the crowd left the municipal building and continued to congregate in the parking lot for some time.

Before the meeting began, the crowd had gathered outside with signs, protesting what they considered to be a lack of action and information about the water crisis.

When the meeting started, the protestors opened with prayer and marched into the building singing, “We shall overcome.”

The town has been under a boil-water notice since May 12, but protestor Amos Montgomery said water quality has been a serious problem for the last 10 years.

“I feel they have had the funds to fix it to where you can drink it, wash your clothes in it, bathe in it,” Montgomery said. “Shouldn’t anybody in the United States of America have to drink the water we have in Ferriday.”

Protestor Earl Green echoed Montgomery’s sentiments, saying that before his wife married him 10 years ago, she had told him stories about worms coming through the pipes with the water in Ferriday.

“It was in bad shape then and it’s in bad shape now,” he said.

Carrying a sign claiming that Ferriday’s system has basically become taxation without representation, Betty Jean Johnson said she feels the aldermen should be better informed about what is going on.

“If we can’t get the mayor or the board members to come forward, someone needs to be moved,” she said.

“This is not just the mayor, it’s the aldermen as well. We elect them to be our mouthpiece, and if the mayor can’t tell us something the aldermen should.”

Protestor Vaugie Knight said she believes the problems with the water system have been caused because real repairs haven’t been done at the water plant in some time.

“Instead of patching things up, tear all the old out and put in all new,” Knight said. “If you give a person a grant, they should have to put up all new stuff.”

It was the grants the town has received to fix the plant in the past that Conner had questions about, he said.

“We keep sending dollars here — we need the federal government to come in and fix it,” Conner said.

But for Rosa Elaine, her concerns were more personal.

“Three weeks ago, I had a heart stint put in,” she said. “I don’t feel like I should have to pay a water bill and still have to tote the water from the water tanks around town.

“It is time for a change and we need it bad.”

Conner said the group plans to protest at Town Hall from 9 a.m. to noon today.