LaGRANGE – The Troup County Board of Commissioners considered a special use permit to allow a local towing service to move to a new location at 3140 West Point Road during its regular meeting on Tuesday.

The towing service is currently located on a smaller piece of property on West Point Road near some residential zoning, so the planning board had a positive recommendation for the permit since it felt the new location would actually be better for both the towing company and neighbors.

“They were just down the road on West Point Road… and they are just wanting to move down to a bigger better location,” said Senior Building Official Jay Anderson. “This is a better location then where they were. This one is surrounded by commercial and even has general industrial behind it – helping buffer it from any potential residential – so it is a good spot.”

Despite the property’s commercial zoning, towing and wrecker services within the county are required to obtain a special use permit that aims to encourage good neighbor practices on the part of the business owner. The commissioners’ main concerns were those practices that could impact neighbors, but Anderson was confident in the applicants and the location’s ability to meet the requirements.

“They understand clearly – because they did it down the road – what the requirements are,” said Anderson. “The fence and the requirements, and they’ve already put half of it in place now, and they know what they’re doing.”

The property has been used for commercial purposes for about 38 years according to officials, but due to an oversight, the property was only officially zoned commercial in January. The board plans to vote on the special use permit at its regular meeting on April 4.

In that commission meeting, the commissioners also approved the following:

• The commissioners approved the acceptance of a grant for the accountability courts. The grant will not require any matching funds from the county.
• The county approved a lift of the hiring freeze for budgeted positions at the airport and in the parks and recreation department.
• The county approved a reimbursable agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration for relocating equipment at the LaGrange-Callaway Airport to make room for the runway expansion.
• The county approved a budget amendment to allow the fire department to buy equipment for a brush truck using funds from the sale of old equipment from the fire department.
• The commissioners approved a resolution to change work session times from Fridays at 9 a.m. on the week prior to meetings to Thursdays at 9 a.m. on the weeks prior to meetings in order to give themselves more time to contact constituents between work sessions and meetings.

The Troup County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to meet again on April 4 at 9 a.m. at 100 Ridley Ave.

Reach Alicia B. Hill at alicia.hill@lagrangenews.com or at 706-884-7311, Ext. 2154.