Baton Rouge has missed the Sept. 1 deadline by which it had to spend some $600,000 in federal grant money to purchase a tire shredder that, it was hoped, would reduce abandoned tires that serve as breeding pools for mosquitoes in blighted areas.
But while the blown deadline could spell the end of the controversial tire shredder saga once and for all, it’s not clear the project is dead just yet.
The Louisiana Department of Health, which received the grant money in 2019 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is passing it on to the parish Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control District to buy the shredder, has scheduled a meeting next week with the CDC to discuss the status of the award to see if the funds are still available.
The deadline to spend the money, originally set for June 1, was extended because of the pandemic.
LDH declined additional comment until after the meeting.
Late Thursday, the city-parish director of purchasing, Kris Goranson, told Daily Report he is under the impression, based on a lengthy conversation he had last week with LDH, that the state would make the money available even though the deadline has passed. But he said he was still awaiting official confirmation.
He said the city-parish has selected a tire shredder, following a public bid process, and is prepared to move forward with purchasing the machine, once he gets the go-ahead from the state.
But purchasing the shredder has never been the issue holding up the beleaguered project. The sticking point has been the facility’s location.
In 2019, Metro Council member Chauna Banks nixed plans to house the shredder on unused MARC property near the parish prison, citing concerns about environmental racism.
Several other sites discussed earlier this year also proved controversial.
In July, a potential location was identified by Baum Environmental Services, the contractor that has agreed to operate the shredder for the city-parish free of charge in return for the shredded material. Baum owner Diane Baum agreed to acquire the 9-acre site just off Scenic Highway, and lease it back to the city-parish for a nominal fee, according to Metro Council member Matt Watson, who has been working on the project.
But the Metro Council has not signed off on that location yet, a necessary step to making the deal happen.
It’s unclear whether the LDH and CDC would be willing to extend the grant deadline before the Metro Council approves the latest proposed location.
MARC Executive Director Randy Vaeth says the parish would benefit from the shredder and that he hates to lose the project, though he concedes he’s not terribly optimistic at this point.
Watson, who is running against Mayor Sharon Weston Broome in the upcoming election, says he’s frustrated that the project “appears to be lost.”
“I’ve done all I can,” he says. “What can I say? It’s par for the course.”
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