FERRIDAY — The issue of electronic bingo in Ferriday has popped its head up in some form at nearly every aldermen meeting the town has had since October, and Tuesday night was no different.

At last month’s meeting, the board and Mayor Glen McGlothin voted to amend the bingo ordinance, changing the bingo vendor from Big Bucks Gaming to WhiteCo. Gaming.

Since the vote was tied 2-2, McGlothin broke the tie, voting in favor of changing the vendor.

It was the mayor’s vote that was brought into question Tuesday night, as alderman Elijah “Stepper” Banks said McGlothin cannot legally break a tie in a vote, citing a legal opinion from the office of the Attorney General.

“Last month I told you we couldn’t pass this, because it is not the law,” he said. “We have to follow what the law says.”

The ordinance states that during the enactment of an ordinance, the mayor is not allowed to cast his vote to break a tie.

McGlothin said that he has broken ties before in voting situations, and that the letter from the attorney general was only an opinion.

Town Attorney Anna Ferguson said that while the opinion does state the mayor can’t break a tie in the case of enacting an ordinance, the board and mayor weren’t enacting an ordinance when they voted in June.

“It was just an amendment to the ordinance in the form of a name change,” she said. “An amendment is not an enactment.”

Ferguson said the board already enacted the ordinance, and the legal opinion did not apply to the situation.

Ferguson also said that she had not had time to fully review the information Banks brought to the board, and that in the future the aldermen need to work better to get information to her before the meetings start.

“I just feel like it would make these meetings move a little smoother,” she said. “Let’s do our homework before we get here, so I can review everything and not be thrown into it.”

With no definitive answer, the board and the mayor decided to send the information regarding the vote to the state to see whether or not it is legal.

Banks said he would work on getting that to the state, and would have the information to the board for the August meeting.

In other news:

• The board voted to officially appoint former Ferriday Police Department Assistant Chief Johnny Evans to Chief of Police.

“I think he has more than enough ability to do this job and do it well,” McGlothin said.

Evans is taking over the position from former chief Kenneth Hedrick, who asked for a leave of absence from the position to run for Concordia Parish Sheriff.

“I am glad to be appointed, and I will continue to do my job as I have always done since being here,” he said. “I have been in law enforcement for 42 years, and I plan on staying in it until I retire, keeping Ferriday as safe as possible.”

The board also voted to accept Hedrick’s leave of absence from the position.

• Ferriday Recreation Board President Robert Lee spoke to the aldermen about cleaning up Montgomery Park.

With the park in bad shape, Lee and the board have been asked to step in and try to rejuvenate the area.

Lee asked for help from the town to clean up the area, but first said some tests needed to be done at the park area to check for health and safety concerns.

“Montgomery Park is located right where the old sewage plant use to be,” he said. “During that time, anything you put in the toilet went into the sewage system, and may have affected the park.”

Lee said tests needed to be done to the area to guarantee the safety of the park before children begin playing there.

“(Recreation) is all about the kids, but it is also all about safety,” Lee said.

Lee also spoke to the board about working closer together with one another to accomplish more in the town.

“A lot of people in this town think the recreation board doesn’t do anything, but we have spent over $125,000 since we took over,” he said. “We are getting things done.”

Lee said the board can’t legally help anyone with projects unless they are approached by a group and asked.

“We have to have a letter saying that you need our assistance,” he said. “We need to be working closer together with one another so we can help each other out more.”

McGlothin said the town will work more with the recreation board, and they will start by sending a representative from the aldermen to attend each recreation meeting.

• McGlothin spoke to the board about a possible raise to the garbage and sewer rates in the town.

The mayor said the garbage rates may see a rise because of the

“We are running our garbage truck five days a week now,” he said. “We are using it so much we need more money to fuel it and keep it running.”

McGlothin said the possible garbage rate increase would not be much.

The possible sewer rate increase stems from the sewage system running into Bayou Cocodrie, McGlothin said.

“Because (Cocodrie) is a scenic waterway, it is held to a higher standard than other places where we could run our sewage,” he said. “The (Department of Environmental Quaility) is putting more tests on us, and the chemical costs and electricity bills are rising.”

McGlothin said a raise in the rates could help alleviate some of those costs, but there is another option Ferriday could pursue that wouldn’t raise the rates.

If the town were to refinance the note for the water plant to make the payments just a little smaller, McGlothin said the town may be able to get by without a raise.

The mayor said if nothing is done with the situation, the DEQ can step in and raise the rates themselves.

“If the price is going to rise, I think it should be a decision that this board has to make, not one by an outside group,” he said.

The board decided to have another rate study done on the sewage system, and return to the item at next month’s meeting.

• Doty Road Church of God Pastor the Rev. Simeon Green announced to the board that a special meeting regarding neighborhood watch in the town is set for 6 p.m. July 20 at the Arcade Theater.

Green said the meeting will introduce the plan created for the program to the public, and Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office Investigator Bobby Sheppard will be there to give a presentation on how Neighborhood Watch works.