WEST BATON ROUGE PARISH, La. (BRPROUD) – The time has come for West Baton Rouge Parish to elect a new parish president and both candidates are natives of the parish. Jason Manola, and Grover Harrison III both have a plan to push West Baton Rouge forward economically, while also using the right resources to make the parish grow stronger as a whole.

“We have the largest amount of dollars that’s going to be spent on infrastructure that has in my lifetime,” said Jason Manola.

Harrison said, “You can have the best infrastructure, the best housing, and the best schools, but if you have a youth problem no one will want to live in your area,” said, Harrison.

With the next four years being critical, Manola said it’s time to prepare for the future.

“There’s things like the LA1/415 Connector, major drainage projects on the northern end of our parish with a stumpy bayou, major waterline upgrades and so forth,” said Manola.

Both candidates share some of the same attributes outside of campaigning like attending Brusly High School and also 10 years of community involvement inside the parish.

Harrison said his vision for West Baton Rouge revolves around the community.

“I want to host town halls where they are scheduled, where people can come and sit and talk with me about issues or problems they may be having,” said Harrison.

Manola and Harrison say they’ll be serving West Baton Rouge in the same capacity just with a different title if elected. Manola said he wants residents to look to him confidently as a leader.

“The experience is key but the additional infrastructure projects we have going on, and that’s what I’m offering to our voters is just, you know, my experience as a certified public accountant but also having served for 14 years,” said Manola.

Harrison said voters should know that he’s bringing change through transparency. 

“Any type of decisions that are being made, they will be made fully, fully aware of those things. Because I am transparent. I have no hidden agendas, nothing to hide other than making West Baton Rouge Parish the best parish it can be,” said Harrison.

The final day to cast your vote is Saturday, Oct. 14th.