A slight disagreement took place over a building the New Iberia City Council has been wrestling over for the past several weeks during Tuesday’s regular meeting. 

On the agenda was an opportunity to revisit a structure located at 306 Hopkins St., which the council discussed March 20. At that meeting, City Councilwoman Sherry Guidry made a motion to demolish the property out of concern for the community, even possible drug activity that made the elderly afraid to go outside at night. 

At the next council meeting April 3, however, Guidry made a motion to reverse the decision again after getting in touch with the owner, who began improving the building to get it in compliance with city standards. She also gave the owners 30 days until the council would revisit the property. 

At Tuesday’s meeting,  30 days later, the council heard from a young representative of the property who said work was continuing on the building. Guidry made a motion to take the home off of the demolition list shortly after. 

City Councilman Dustin Suire, however, said the home had been on and off the demolition list before, and was worried it would become a problem again down the road. 

“You want to make a motion to remove the house,” Suire said at the meeting. “The thing that stands out to me is just two months ago the property was harmful to residents. A couple of months ago Ms. Guidry said it was a hazard, there were issues like drug activity and maybe violent activity.

“My concern is are we going to be dealing with this again at some point,” he said. 

City Councilwoman Deidre Ledbetter said she voted no at the April meeting, and said she wouldn’t give any more chances to the owners if the building ended up on the demolition list again. 

“My thing also is that its been there since 2014 off and on, and honestly if we say it’s going off and it comes back on, there’s not going to be any more chance,” Ledbetter said. 

Suire attempted to make a substitute motion to revisit the home again in 90 days, which Guidry responded to by saying the property wasn’t in Suire’s district. The council traditionally decides what to do with property issues based on the district that the property resides in.  

“When I see a young person come to the council, I want to encourage her to help lift up the West End community, which I’m apart of,” City Councilman Marlon Lewis said. 

“For the record, I wasn’t discouraging her,” Suire said. “My concern was what I just spoke about.” 

Guidry said the situation was a win-win situation, since money won’t have to be spent to be demolished and the owner is planning on opening a business. 

“I don’t want our young people in the city to walk away with the notion that we’re not for them,” Guidry said.  “I think the bottom line is it got done, we saved taxpayers dollars and she still has her building.” 

Legal counsel Jeff Simon said that the owners had accomplished all they needed to in order to get in line with property standards, with the exception of weeds. 

“The question is if it’s appropriate to be on the list or not,” Simon said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to be on the list because it’s solved, maybe not forever but for now. So far, a lot has been accomplished on this property.”

The council ultimately voted unanimously to remove the building from the demolition list.