BATON ROUGE - A tire-shredding program designed to reduce blight in troubled areas around town has some residents asking for more help.
Most of the problems are riddled along the border of Plank Road.

"It seems like everyone from better neighborhoods comes over here and throws all their tires in this neighborhood," Linda Collins said. She is a homeowner in

North Baton Rouge where several piles of old tires have been dumped near her house.

Tire shops are charging at least $4.00 for each old tire they take in. The fee is for disposal costs operated by the Department of Environmental Quality.

With a $600,000 shredder purchased by a grant, and the commitment from a private company to operate the machine, the parish is working on a plan that allows people to bring their old tires to a designated area at no cost.

"I like that, 100%, I agree with that," Davis said.

Besides the blight, Davis is also concerned about rodents and insects old tires can attract.

"We're afraid of rats, snakes, mosquitoes, and everything you know. Tires, when it rains, they draw all these things and we're afraid for our kids," Davis said.

The pubic meeting to discuss the tire shredder operation is Tuesday at  5:30 p.m. at the EBR Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control Training Building.