State environmental officials are awarding grant funding to counties around Michigan to help with scrap tire collection.
More than a million dollars in grants will be used for scrap tire drop-off events and to clean up old tire piles at private properties.
Kirsten Clemens is the Scrap Tire Program Coordinator with Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. She said it’s common for the state to help with tire collection, but this summer’s outbreak of the mosquito-borne Eastern Equine Encephalitis has added another reason to clean up old tire sites.
“There has been kind of an uptick in calls about concerned folks about having tires..ya know, their neighbors have tires or whatever, and are they hatching mosquitoes? And the answer to that is, ‘potentially, yes’.”
Mecosta County will be receiving the largest grant from the program..at about two-hundred thousand dollars. Clemens said that’s because the county is working on an ongoing tire cleanup at a private site.