Cleaning up District 3

The rain that fell Saturday held up just long enough for Keep New Iberia Beautiful’s District 3 clean-up volunteers to stay dry.

More than 100 volunteers turned out at 8 a.m. at the Bank Avenue Park to participate in the event.

“The rain started at noon time, so it was perfect, right on cue. The temperature was very pleasant,” said Dena Maturin, executive director of KNIB.

Maturin said the clean up was successful thanks to the involvement of the community and numerous high school groups.

“We had a fantastic turnout. I would say we had definitely 100-plus. It might have even had pushed 125,” said David Broussard. “We had five to seven of the different high school groups come out.”

Several youth groups also took part in helping to clean up the district, including the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board, students from New Iberia Senior High, Westgate High, Catholic High School and Boy Scouts Pack 360.

Maturin said for every one adult that volunteered Saturday, there were four students.

“I would like to congratulate and praise students for doing such a wonderful civic duty in cleaning up our city,” she said. “Next time it would be very nice if we could get the same amount of adults involved as the students.”

She urged parents of students to get involved with the students by helping to clean up for the next clean up.

“The Sheriff’s Department sent 20 trusties and two deputies which helped a lot because they are the ones that get out there and do the big, big dumpsters,” said Maturin.

New Iberia City Councilman David Broussard said the clean up focused on large “controversial” piles of trash.

“What we’re after is large controversial piles. If you driving around District 3, it will be noticeable,” Broussard said. “It costs people $400 a dumpster to demolish their homes or do some things. It helps the people that are on the border line.”

Maturin said the clean up concentrated on certain areas throughout the district.

“We really wanted to concentrate on the interchange at (Highway) 90 done and the trusties did that. Mr. Broussard’s district is all of Center Street, which we wanted to get since that’s one of the gateways to the city. We got all that done,” she said. “We were really able to get all the main streets.”

Residents in the district also received information on the city’s collection of yard waste. Members of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board hung door hangers that offered information on items the city will accept for recycling and pick up times.

The Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office also provided a boost to the cleanup efforts by targeting litterers in the area.

“The Sheriff’s Department had the bicycle patrol out in just this district and the department called it Zero Tolerance Litter Day. We spent all this time cleaning up and they were trying to target people who were littering. There were four bicycle patrol officers that were looking just for litter bugs,” Maturin said.

Keep New Iberia Beautiful will focus on District 1 for it’s next clean up day. The date and time will be announced at a later date.