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Abbeville recently captured its eighth district title in the Louisiana Garden Club Federation’s Cleanest City Contest.
Now, Abbeville is going for its fourth state title.
Judges for the state competition will be in Abbeville next Tuesday morning.
“Since we have won the District III, Category G Cleanest City Contest, we are now in the running for the State Cleanest City Contest,” Keep Abbeville Beautiful’s Charlene Beckett said.
Abbeville will compete against city’s with a population of 9,500 to 14,499. That list includes Crowley, Pineville and West Monroe.
“We have a designated route which is required by contest rules,” Beckett explained.
The route must include approaches to the city, governments buildings, schools, library, park, and a cemetery. The other areas that they judge are weeds around poles, landscaping, cigarette butts and litter. There are three judges who will ride the route with Mayor Mark Piazza as well as a narrator who will announce the upcoming streets.
“We hope that through these efforts it will inspire each of us to beautify and keep our areas clean,” Beckett said. “We appreciate everyone’s efforts in keeping the city clean, healthy and litter free.”
The judging will take place on Tuesday, May 10 at 9 a.m. If you would like to help clean up the route or any part of the city, please contact Beckett at 337-652-2239.
“Let’s work together with the Abbeville Garden Club, Keep Abbeville Beautiful and you to bring home the award,” Beckett said.

As the organization approaches its eighth anniversary, the Board of Directors of the Vermilion Economic Development Alliance is happy to announce the hiring of Victoria Sagrera Bourque as Program Administrator, a position designed to lead the organization into its next phase.
When Anne Falgout, VEDA’s first Executive Director, announced her resignation from the local economic development agency, the leadership team set out to find a “passionate individual committed to moving the organization and community forward.”
Victoria Bourque was selected to work alongside a 15-member board, in coordination with other local, regional, and state economic development agencies to sustain and grow economic development efforts in Vermilion Parish. She will begin her leadership within the organization in June.
Board President Ben Rivera is excited about the transition. “We were delighted to find someone from Vermilion Parish that can continue the success we have worked so hard to achieve. Lightening apparently does strike twice!”
Bourque has a wide array of skills that make her well-suited for the position which will officially begin in June. She has served in various capacities with coastal advocacy entities and is an active member of the Vermilion Parish community, serving on the Vermilion Parish Tourist Commission and Louisiana Cattle Festival boards. She understands and values the recognition our community deserves, and has demonstrated experience in promoting our area, during her reign as Miss Louisiana United States in 2017.
“In addition to thoroughly enjoying networking to develop and maintain business relationships,” Bourque says, “I have an immense passion for the food, entertainment, and joie de vivre that is encompassed in our unique Louisiana culture, especially in my hometown of Abbeville and Vermilion Parish!”
The VEDA Hiring & Transition Committee pictured with incoming Program Administrator are Richard Guilbeaux, representing Vermilion Parish School Board, Anne Falgout, outgoing VEDA Director, Ben Rivera, representing the Vermilion Chamber of Commerce and Megan Lalande representing the Town of Maurice. Not pictured is Gerrod Brasseux representing the Vermilion Parish Police Jury.
For more information on the organization, visit www.developvermilion.org.

BATON ROUGE – Attorney General Jeff Landry today secured $1.7 million from the owner of TurboTax, Intuit Inc. (Intuit), for deceiving consumers into paying for tax services that should have been free.
As a result of a multistate agreement, Intuit will pay $141 million in restitution to millions of consumers across our Nation who were unfairly charged. In addition, Intuit must suspend TurboTax's "free, free, free" ad campaign that lured customers with promises of free tax preparation services, only to deceive them into paying for services. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have signed the agreement.
“Intuit used dishonest and deceptive practices to prey upon the least fortunate of our neighbors,” Landry said. “So I applaud my Consumer Protection Section for their hard work to ensure Louisiana receives $1.7 million for consumers who were duped into paying to file their federal tax returns.”
A multistate investigation into Intuit began after ProPublica reported that the company was using deceptive digital tactics to steer low-income consumers toward its commercial products and away from federally-supported free tax services.
Intuit has offered two free versions of TurboTax. The first, through its participation in the IRS Free File Program, a public-private partnership with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which allows taxpayers earning roughly $34,000 and members of the military to file their taxes for free. In exchange for participating in the program, the IRS agreed not to compete with Intuit and other tax-prep companies by providing its own electronic tax preparation and filing services to American taxpayers.
In addition, Intuit offers a commercial product called "TurboTax Free Edition," which is only free for taxpayers with "simple returns" as defined by Intuit. In recent years, TurboTax has marketed this "freemium" product aggressively, including through ad campaigns where "free" is the most prominent or sometimes the only selling point. In some ads, the company repeated the word "free" dozens of times in as short as 30 seconds. However, the TurboTax "freemium" product is only free for approximately one-third of US taxpayers. In contrast, the IRS Free File products were free for 70 percent of taxpayers.
The investigation found that Intuit engaged in several deceptive and unfair trade practices that limited consumers' participation in the IRS Free File Program. The company used confusingly similar names for both its IRS Free File product and its commercial "freemium" product. Intuit bid on paid search advertisements to direct consumers who were looking for the IRS Free File product to the TurboTax "freemium" product instead. Intuit also purposefully blocked its IRS Free File landing page from search engine results during the 2019 tax filing season, effectively shutting out eligible taxpayers from filing their taxes for free. Moreover, TurboTax's website included a "Products and Pricing" page that stated it would "recommend the right tax solution," but never displayed or recommended the IRS Free File program, even when consumers were ineligible for the "freemium" product.
Intuit will pay $141 million in restitution, of which roughly $2.5 million will be used for administrative fund costs.
Under the agreement, Intuit will provide restitution to millions of consumers who started using TurboTax's Free Edition for tax years 2016 through 2018 and were told that they had to pay to file even though they were eligible to file for free using the version of TurboTax offered as part of the IRS Free File program. Consumers are expected to receive a direct payment of approximately $30 for each year that they were deceived into paying for filing services. Impacted consumers will automatically receive notices and a check by mail.
Intuit has also agreed to reform its business practices, including:
Refraining from making misrepresentations in connection with promoting or offering any online tax preparation products;
Enhancing disclosures in its advertising and marketing of free products;
Designing its products to better inform users whether they will be eligible to file their taxes for free; and
Refraining from requiring consumers to start their tax filing over if they exit one of Intuit’s paid products to use a free product instead.
Intuit withdrew from the IRS Free File program in July 2021.