Abbeville's first female Mayor discusses plans for city

Abbeville's first female mayor Roslyn White is looking to bring change to the city for the better. She tested positive for Covid-19 Wednesday. However, she continues her duties as mayor.

ABBEVILLE, La. (KLFY) – Abbeville's first female mayor Roslyn White is looking to bring change to the city for the better. She tested positive for Covid-19 Wednesday. However, she continues her duties as mayor.

Mayor White’s vision focuses on improving Abbeville for the future. "My goal is to build a strategic and comprehensive plan of where we want the city to be in 20 years and then go after the resources to make it happen,” said Mayor White. "I really subscribe to the belief that being a leader is not about creating followers; it's about recognizing strengths in other people and figuring out how to create more leaders." 

In just less than a week the mayor had sworn in and took her placement as mayor. Since former Mayor Mark Piazza retired after serving Abbeville for 20 years she said she was nervous about the position but the team has helped make her transition well. “For me it is very emotional, very humble to be the first female mayor and very humbling to be the person who takes Mayor Mark Piazza who has done such a great job,” she said. “You worry about what the community response will be but I cannot tell you how positive and exciting and it’s energetic to feel the energy going toward our community right now.”

Some of the mayor’s plans include, increasing economic development, tourism, reducing crime, technology in city hall and forming a youth council as well as creating space for the city to be more accessible to walking and biking. "We have failed to grow technology in city hall and automation. So that's something immediately I'm looking at and trying to figure out where we can improve some inefficiencies."

For the youth council she explains there have been details discussing preparing the youth council. 

“I want every culture represented on that youth council. That's why I think it might be a changing council throughout the year. I want to hear from people, the kids in affluent areas and the kids in disadvantaged areas. I think both have ideas and opportunities that they can bring to the table for the community so I think it is important that it is diverse; it’s all walks of life,” said the mayor. 

The mayor said she welcomes all ideas and has an open door policy. Despite battling Covid-19 she is using her experiences to advance her community. "It really made us stop and think and recognize your gaps in services and how you need to improve things to be able to respond to issues like this,” she said. “Four years ago no government had thought of how to react to that. So already it’s generating ideas on how we need to improve City Hall. How can we continue to run things remotely?”