(LAGRANGE) – LaGrange County roads are in poor shape.

That was part of a message delivered to the LaGrange County Council during their meeting Monday. The other part of the message was how does the County pay for fixing the roads.

Representatives from Butler, Fairman and Seufert, a Fort Wayne civil engineering firm, told the Council they had traveled every paved road in LaGrange County and on a scale of 1 to 10, the road conditions in the County are 4.5. They said anything rated below a 5 is bad.

The Council then spoke with Financial Advisor Jeff Peters on the options available to help get the roads fixed. Peters says two options are to raise the County’s wheel tax and the surtax. He says both of those are lower than any surrounding county at the present time.

Peters explained that the surtaxes are taxed as a percentage of the vehicle registration fee, with a minimum of $10 coming to the County. The surtaxes bring in approximately $325,000 annually for the County, which they also share with their incorporated towns. Peters offered a suggestion to raise the tax to a flat rate of $50 per vehicle, which would then bring in $13 million a year for the County.

Peters also shared that the wheel tax raises approximately $131,000 a year for the County and is strictly a tax for larger vehicle. He also suggested changing the wheel tax to an $80 flat rate. That would increase the money for the County to $392,000 a year.

The Council will discuss the matter more during their February meeting, along with a funding request from the LaGrange County Highway Department, asking for $5.5 million.