Local News

The bleeding continues for sales tax collections throughout Vermilion Parish.
The Sales Tax Department collected around $500,000 less in sales tax this past January than last year at this time.
The big three, School Board, Police Jury and Sheriff’s Office had a decrease in collections by at least 15 percent from a year ago.
The School Board collected $603,000 last year, and only $512,000 this past January.
The Police Jury collection is off $138,000 from a year ago. This past January they collected $768,000.

Maurice Mayor Bob Ferguson is hoping the third time is the charm for the expansion of the Village of Maurice.
Ferguson has been the mayor of Maurice for 3 1/2 years and in that time, he has tried twice to extend the boundary lines of the Village and has not been successful.
The Village is going to try a third time.
At Monday night’s monthly meeting, the three aldermen approved the new proposed lines and gave the Mayor the authority to proceed with the expansion of Maurice.

By Rick Kennedy, managing editor
The City of Abbeville and its Keep Abbeville Beautiful (KAB) board are getting ready for the Cleanest City Contest. Judging will be held Wednesday, March 31. Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazzaz and the City Council have endorsed the contest. KAB chairperson Sandra Creswell delivered an update to the City Council at its March 16 meeting.
“The KAB board, city employees, and many volunteers are working to win the District Contest as well as the State title. We ask the public to do their part and clean up our beautiful city,” Piazza said.

By Chris Rosa, news editor
Abbeville High’s Jazz Band attended the Louisiana Association of Jazz Educators State Jazz Festival as a way to get experience. What they did not expect was to place in the top three.
After they performed at the festival this past Saturday at Northwestern State University, they left.
The judges announced the top three, but Abbeville was not anywhere to be found. They were en route back home.
Some North Vermilion High students, who stayed until the end, texted students from Abbeville High about their top three finish.

By Rick Kennedy, managing editor
Citing both the City of Abbeville’s charter document and the Louisiana State Constitution, Abbeville’s Legal Counsel said it was his opinion that the Vermilion Parish Police Jury had limited taxing authority within the city limits in a report delivered at Tuesday night’s Abbeville City Council meeting.
In his presentation, Counsel J. Isaac Funderburk concluded the Police Jury may legally levy taxes in only four instances within the City of Abbeville, which he listed as “maintaining a courthouse,” as well a jail, roads, and a public library.

By Rick Kennedy, managing editor
Members of the Abbeville City Council expressed their dissatisfaction with the way some city projects are being handled – or rather not handled – to the City’s Public Works Director at its meeting Tuesday night.
Public Works, in general, and the Street and Bridge Superintendent, in particular, incurred the wrath of the Council for a litany of unfinished projects in their districts; at one point, Councilman Francis Touchet waved a numbered list of projects as he expressed his unhappiness with what he called lack of progress.