If you’ve got old tires sitting in your backyard or garage, Seymour Department of Public Works will be glad to take them off your hands.
But it’s going to cost you.
In the past, the city has always accepted used tires for disposal for free. Now, it will cost $3 per tire, except during the annual Make Seymour Shine Week. During that time, the city will accept four car tires per household at no charge, thanks to assistance from the Jackson County Solid Waste Management District.
Make Seymour Shine begins Monday and ends April 8.
“We’ve never really publicized that we took tires for free, but we always wind up with them, especially around Make Seymour Shine Week,” said Bill Everhart, director of public works.
Payment will have to be made before tires are picked up or at the time they are dropped off at the DPW facility in Freeman Field.
Although the number of tires being picked up or dropped off is sporadic, Everhart said he estimates the department gets as many as 100 tires a month.
Everhart said the new fee is necessary to recoup money the department is losing by accepting them for free.
“We have to pay to get rid of them, so we are just passing that cost down and recouping our expense plus a small bit for fuel and labor,” he told members of the board of public works and safety at their March 24 meeting.
The city pays a little more than $2 to dispose of tires, not including additional expenses for manpower and gas.
“We have a company that comes in and picks them up, takes them down to Louisville and recycles them,” Everhart said.
Board member Jim Rebber said he was concerned that if forced to pay a fee, people may begin to dump tires in ditches or other places.
“The possibility is there, and there are always going to be those people who may choose to do that, but I don’t think it will become a problem,” Everhart said.
City attorney Rodney Farrow said even if people take old tires to a tire shop, they still have to pay a disposal fee.
“That’s why they put them out for us to pick up,” Everhart said.
For information, call the Seymour Department of Public Works at 524-1100 or [email protected].