LaGrange City Council is looking at raising the charge for the disposal of tires for residents and greatly increasing the price for those outside Troup County.

David Brown, director of public services for the city, said the city’s landfill is one of the area’s only places that provide tire disposal.

That information has been getting around.

The city is allowed to have 1,800 tires in the landfill at a time. Workers collect, process and transport the tires to Atlanta for recycling for a fee.

County residents and others from outside the county pay $1 for passenger tires off the rim and $2.50 for tires on the rim to be processed at the landfill. The city makes about $1,000 after handling the tires, and it pays about $800 for the recycling service, not counting the associated city salaries.

The past few trips, however, haven’t been completely city residents’ tires.

“We have recently been inundated with tires from outside the county,” City Manager Tom Hall said Tuesday.

Talbot County, for example, recently sent about 300 tires to LaGrange for processing.

City officials would like to see a positive cash flow when those outside the county use the city service. Under a proposal being considered, local rates would increase to $1.50 for tires off the rim and $3.75 on the rim. The rate for tires from outside the county would go to $3 off the rim and $5 on the rim.

“It’s going to be important to continue this revenue generation, but not shut it off,” Mayor Jeff Lukken said.

Councilman Bobby Traylor said, “I don’t think we should handle someone else’s problems without a substantial increase in pay.”

With more tires coming from outside the county, officials run the risk of having more tires than the city permit allows. And Brown doesn’t want to take more tires because of the Environmental Protection Division’s permit, which includes heavy fire protection regulation.

Heard County recently suggested bringing 50,000 tires to LaGrange. That plan was quickly scuttled.

LaGrange officials believe that increasing the prices will help continue the revenue, but help control large number of tires coming in from outside the county.

“It’s an important service to provide for our county to avoid tire dumps,” Brown said.

In another matter Tuesday, council approved rezoning two property areas in the 500 block of Vernon Street across from Shell Mart and Big Chic.

The two pieces will be rezoned OIR, allowing both to remain as residential living spaces if wanted. They are expected to be used as office space.