BATON ROUGE - Tonight, East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council will discuss an industrial shredding machine that would reduce the amount of old tires around the parish. 

The parish was awarded $600,000 in grants for the purchase of shredder, but no machine has been bought at this time. Those funds were issued to the Office of Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control, who says it doesn't want the shredder.

As a result, that grant remains unused. Councilman Matt Watson says old tires hold water which attracts mosquitos. Recently, East Baton Rouge Parish reported its first positive sample of West Nile Virus this year. Watson believes the shredder presents an opportunity to drive mosquitos away before more cases are detected. 

Discussion over the shredder has been listed as an emergency item on Wednesday's Metro Council agenda.