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New Boys & Girls Club Director Kimberly Bessard speaks during a recent city council meeting.

Bessard is new Abbeville Boys & Girls Club director

There is a is a new face overseeing the Boys & Girls Club in Abbeville, albeit a familiar one.
Kimberly Bessard is the new director of the local club, which is located at A.A. Comeaux Park. She has been with the club for several years.
Bessard recently attended an Abbeville City Council meeting to introduce herself to local officials. Councilwoman Terry Broussard invited Bessard to the meeting.
“I was born and raised here,” Bessard said proudly.

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Vermilion Parish tourism figures improve

Each year, the Vermilion Parish Tourist Commission (VPTC) compiles tourism figures from several sources and compares these numbers to previous years to measure the success of their marketing efforts to grow tourism in the parish. After being down for a couple of years, tourism began to slowly pick up in 2021 and has continued that trend in 2022.
“Having all of our major festivals return in 2022 and hosting several large tournaments at AA Comeaux and Quality Sports Authority helped our tourism industry recover during last year,” stated Alison Miller, VPTC Executive Director.

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Photo by Craig Gautreaux/LSU AgCenter
Sugarcane that turned brown as a result of the recent hard freeze.

Christmas freeze puts damper on record sugarcane season

NEW IBERIA — In his 33 years of farming sugarcane, Ricky Gonsoulin had never had as good of a crop as the one he saw growing in his fields in 2022. And in 33 years, he had never lost so much as a stalk of sugarcane to a freeze.
But that unlikely scenario came to pass in late December when an arctic blast sent temperatures below freezing for three days across Louisiana. At his farm near New Iberia, Gonsoulin spent Christmas waiting for his cane to thaw so he could survey the damage and get back to work harvesting whatever remained.

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Abbeville assistant fire chief Kelly Mire (at podium) spoke to the jurors about the response times of Acadian Ambulance. Mire said another ambulance service would be a benefit to the parish. Also in the audience were Abbeville Mayor Roslyn White (left) Abbeville’s public works director Chris Gautreaux, Maurice alderman Matthew Trahan, citizens and first responders from the parish.

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Marc Creswell of Acadian Ambulances talks to the police jurors.

Vermilion Parish Police Jury says no to two ambulance services in parish

There will not be two ambulance services in Vermilion Parish.
The police jury voted 7-4 to deny Global Medical Response from locating in the parish.
Jurors voting not to let Global Medical Response (Med Express) into Vermilion were Ronald Darby, Liz Touchet, Mark Poché, Chad Lege, Chad Vallo, Scott Broussard and Dexter Callahan.
Dane Hebert, Brent Landry, Errol Domingues and Ronald Menard voted to allow Global Medical Response into the parish.

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Representatives from two ambulance services will make presentations during Wednesday’s Vermilion Parish 911 committee meeting.

Is there a need for two ambulance providers in Vermilion Parish?

On Wednesday, the Vermilion Parish police jurors are expected to hear a presentation from Acadia Ambulance and Global Medical Response on whether there is a need for two ambulance services in the parish.
The two will speak at a “Need and Necessity” hearing at Wednesday’s 911 Committee Meeting in the Police Jury Meeting Room. It will begin at 5:30 p.m. The meeting room is located on the second floor the Vermilion Parish Courthouse.
The public is invited to attend the meeting.

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Vermilion Today

Abbeville Meridional

318 N. Main St.
Abbeville, LA 70510
Phone: 337-893-4223
Fax: 337-898-9022

The Kaplan Herald

219 North Cushing Avenue
Kaplan, LA 70548