Abbeville residents began casting votes for the city’s next mayor on Saturday during early voting. The two candidates vying for the position are incumbent mayor Roslyn White and local nonprofit organizer Anita Levy.
White was first elected to the position in 2022, beating out challenger Francis Plaisance with 59% of the vote. She’s spent her campaign focusing on her accomplishments as mayor, highlighting $24 million in grants the city received over the past four years.
“We’ve been aggressively addressing our critical infrastructure, our water, and our sewer,” White said. “We just secured federal and state dollars to upgrade water and electrical systems. We still have a lot to accomplish in that area, but we’re on the right track.”
White also highlighted her work addressing the city’s ongoing drainage concerns. Several neighborhoods across the city report frequent issues with flooding, with water often persisting for days following rain events due to aging infrastructure. White serves on the Regional Watershed Board, which focuses on mitigating flooding issues that many communities face along the Teche and Vermilion rivers.
“We are susceptible to tidal surge and rainwater coming down from the north,” White said. “Fundamentally, the best thing we can do for drainage is come up with projects that can mitigate it. We can’t drain Abbeville until the Vermilion River starts flowing out. We have to work on large-scale regional watershed management.”
White’s proposals for economic expansion center more on reducing the high insurance rates that plague many h communities and handling blight in the city.
“We see properties across the city that are stagnant,” White said. “I meet with businesses that would like to be in Abbeville, but there’s a lack of decent property in the area. We’re trying to hold our property owners to a higher standard in order to increase their values.”
Levy, White’s only opponent in the race, has touted her experience running a local nonprofit, the Levy Cancer Foundation, as evidence she can expand the city’s economic footprint.
“If you want to bring revenue from other parishes you have to grow,” Levy said. “I’ve seen people move to Youngsville, open a business, and do really well. We need to leverage all that we have to keep those people in Abbeville.”
Levy proposed educational courses that the city could offer to aspiring business owners.
“We can have classes where we teach people how to open a non-profit or a business,” Levy said.
Levy’s nonprofit has focused on raising funds for cancer patients in Vermilion Parish. Key tenets of her campaign include an open-door policy and prioritizing first responders. The city was sued in 2023 for allegedly underpaying senior officials in the Abbeville Police Department. A court ruling earlier this year found that several officers were entitled to higher compensation under the city’s payscale than they had been receiving
Levy credited White’s performance on lowering crime rates in the city, however has suggested that the city has not done enough to support police officers and other first responders.
While White and Levy are opponents in the election, both candidates say they respect the other.
“It’s incredibly difficult to decide to serve. I know she loves this community the same way I do,” White said.
“I love Abbeville. I feel like there’s a need for change. There’s always room to improve things in this city, but there is absolutely no ill will,” Levy said. “I just want people to go out and vote. If you want to change things you have to vote.”