New Iberia City Councilman David Broussard sounds off on tires placed in public areas of New Iberia at Tuesday’s council meeting.

A plan to address the problem of discarded tires on city streets will be developed after the issue was discussed at Tuesday’s New Iberia City Council meeting. 

City Councilman David Broussard, who introduced the agenda item, said there has been a growing problem in his district of tires being dumped in public areas.

“It causes an unsightly appearance and it causes a possible health risk,” Broussard said. 

“Rainwater collecting in these tires could cause mosquitoes to breed and cause West Nile Virus.”

Broussard said he’s been bombarded with calls from local residents about the issue, noting he once got a call at 3 a.m.

“They called me at 3 in the morning about 10 tires in the middle of the road,” he said. 

“How are fire trucks going to get to a fire with those tires in the middle of the road?

“There’s got to be a resolution where we can move stuff. Ten neighbors a week call me up on this.”

Lawyer Jeff Simon, the city’s legal counsel, said there were multiple ways to address the issue depending on the situation. If a tire is at a residence, Gordon’s Disposal can pick it up and if it’s on neutral ground then the city can discard the tire. 

There is also a junk ordinance that holds a landowner responsible for junk on his property, Simon said.

City Council members agreed that it was probably a commercial business discarding the tires in an inappropriate place, and decided on sending cease and desist letters to several tire companies so that they can start properly discarding them. 

If it continues, the New Iberia Police Department may have to investigate, some council members agreed.

“There has to be someone in the area doing that at night,” Mayor Pro Tem Dan Doerle said. “With the police department we have now, I think we can catch them.”