Public meeting Thursday to try and salvage summer ball in Abbeville

There are 54 children who are waiting to see if the city of Abbeville is going to have baseball this summer. Abbeville Councilman Francis Plaisance is calling a public meeting to try and organize some kind of short season for these children and others who want to play.
The meeting will be held Thursday at 6 p.m in the Abbeville City Hall Meeting Room.
Parents of the children who registered with Abbeville and any other parent interested in registering are encouraged to attend tonight’s meeting.
“I want to see the children play baseball,” said Plaisance. “They signed up and are waiting to play.”
Plaisance said he would like to see how many teams could be created with the children who are already registered. If it is three or four teams, then those teams would play each other in Abbeville. If anyone has questions about the meeting, league or registration, they can call him at 652-0646.
Marty Hebert is a parent of one of the 54 children who signed up to play baseball in Abbeville. He has been waiting to see what the city is going to do about its summer program. When he heard about the meeting, he was happy.
“I am excited the city is moving forward,” said Hebert. “I still have faith Abbeville will have summer baseball.”
The city of Abbeville finds itself without a parks and recreation director after it let go Jerry Smith, who was the parks director in Abbeville for the last six months.
The City Council voted 3-2 to hire Laura Briggs as interim parks and recreation director. Councilman Wayne Landry made the motion to hire her at the city council meeting two weeks ago. Plaisance, Landry and Councilman Joe Hardy approved her hiring.
Abbeville councilman Francis Touchet voted not to hire her and Councilman Brady Broussard Jr. abstained from that vote.
Since her hiring, Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza has not heard from Briggs and is not sure if she will or will not take the job. .
With no one to oversee the recreation program in Abbeville, Plaisance said he will try to ignite the baseball program, having the meeting is the first step.