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Abbeville City Council interested in annexing old golf course

Posted at 6:28 PM, Sep 04, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-04 19:28:40-04

The Abbeville City Council is showing interest in an abandoned golf course.

Tonight, the council is discussing a resolution authorizing the Mayor to negotiate with the owners of the old Vermilion Oaks Country Club. The council wants to annex the property on LA-14 into the city limits and take over its operation.

Vermilion Oaks has sat vacant for nearly a year. The owners closed the business last October, citing a down economy. The course was the only place to play golf in Vermilion Parish.

“It’s somewhat troubling that no one has taken this on…that’s why I’m bringing this to our Mayor and our City Council,” said Abbeville City Councilman Francis Touchet.

He said the council will look closely at the financial possibilities of the golf course before deciding whether to move forward.

“We’re not trying to make money off of this,” Touchet said. “We’re trying to make sure we can self-sustain this through its own revenue.”

If the city council agrees to move forward and the deal does go through, they’ll take over the operations of the 100 plus acre golf course.

“We talk about getting this ready to play, there is going to be a cost involved with that,” said Touchet. “We need to look at what the operations are and what revenues would be produced from that operation and see if it would be a feasible thing for the City of Abbeville.”

So far, the council has not discussed how much the city would be willing to pay for the country club.

“We have local high schools who would utilize this for playing tournaments and we have people who would come and play for leisure. It’s a win-win for our city and our parish,” said Touchet.

We reached out to the owners of Vermilion Oaks and they say at this time, it’s premature to comment on the city’s interest in the property.