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Jiles Landry, Dean Dunaway and city worker James Derouen picking up trash flushed from a catch basin. Dunaway and Landry are working with the city as part of a FEMA program.

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The workers use the flushing machine to clean out a catch basin.

Abbeville utilizes FEMA worker program

Abbeville took its share of the effects from the historic flooding in August.
Now, the city is taking advantage of a FEMA program that allows the hiring of three workers, at no cost to the city, to conduct some disaster related work.
“We recently obtained three employees through this FEMA grant,” Abbeville Civil Service Director Tracette Hillman told the City Council Tuesday during its regular meeting.
The grant is through FEMA’s Disaster Dislocated Worker program, designed to help workers who lost jobs in other fields, including the oil field. The program is in conjunction with Louisiana Workforce Commission.
“These three workers are coming through a staffing agency in Lafayette,” Hillman explained. “It is at no cost to the city. There is also no liability.”
The temporary employees are working with street crews with the objective of cleaning out ditches,
culverts and catch basins throughout Abbeville. The grant allows the city to keep the workers for up to a year, so long as the work being done is disaster related.
“We’ve been training them for the past few days,” Mayor Mark Piazza said during the meeting. “They will have all the equipment that they will need.”
Piazza said the city received the OK from FEMA to have one of the workers help at the city’s parks. The other two will be paired with a full-time city worker, who will be the driver and in charge of the equipment.
“They are going to take the flushing machine and go street to street,” Piazza said. “They are going to flush the jars and clean ditches on streets in Abbeville.”
The workers are going to start on the west side of the Vermilion River.
“That area experienced some of the worst flooding,” Piazza said. “We are going to be doing this through the winter.”
The three workers are from the area.
“I made sure they were Abbeville residents,” Hillman said. “They have all been screened and had background checks done.”
Councilman Francis Touchet Jr., District B, joked that the next few months can serve as a good audition for the workers.
“Keep an eye on them,” Touchet said. “After the year, if they are that good, we may want to hire them.”
Councilman Brady Broussard Jr., District C, said the city will receive multiple benefits from this program.
“We are now in full leaf falling season,” Broussard said. “We’re going to have our ditch system blown from leaves, as well as the mud and silt that the river water put in our ditches. This couldn’t be overemphasized, the value to our citizens, without us having to pay for it.
“This is a wonderful program.”

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