Mayor Brad Cole compared towing companies to other small businesses trying to make a living. Councilman Chris Wissmann compared them to a license for grand theft auto.

Either way, towing fees are increasing Sept. 1.

The City Council approved a request for a $10 increase on non-consensual tows, raising the current $55 fee to $65. The request was approved 6-1 with Wissmann voting against the action.

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Several members said the council should wait to vote on the issue until students returned from summer break.

Although students aren’t the only ones affected by the increase, Councilman Lance Jack reiterated that the students nearly double the city population. He wanted more input from students on the issue.

Dan Throgmorton, the owner of Larry’s Towing Services, said his business operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, around Carbondale, and insists it’s getting harder to break even in the business. His company pays around $60 on gasoline and diesel fuel per truck every day, he said.

Leroy Walker, manager of Express Towing, said his company spends about $400 on gasoline and diesel a day to fill three trucks.

“Ten dollars a tow, that isn’t going amount to much,” Throgmorton said. “You get a lot of expense. Trucks used to be 20 to 30 grand – now they’re about 60.”

He likened his experience to that of a law enforcer. The pay isn’t particularly great, and people are angry with him all the time, he said.

“When somebody wants something done, we’re the best person around,” he said. “When somebody does something illegal, it’s not fun.”

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Wissmann said if towing companies can’t make money, they should find another line of work.

Krysteena Barrios, a junior from Waukegan studying elementary education, said she borrowed a friend’s car one weekend and parked it in an overnight lot behind Wright One residence hall. The vehicle didn’t have a decal.

“I came out, and it wasn’t there,” she said. “I thought you could park on campus overnight on the weekends without a decal. Obviously not.”

On top of a $35 parking fine, Barrios said she had to pay a $75 towing fee in cash.

She didn’t understand why she had to pay $75 when the current towing fees were $55.

“It was $110 total, which made me go negative in my bank account,” she said.

Elizabeth Cunningham, an O’Fallon resident, was visiting a friend at the Quadrangle Apartments during the spring. She had a visitor pass, which she said must have fallen out of the window and onto her seat, because when she came out of the apartment almost two hours later, the car was being towed.

She said she told the towing company she had a visitor’s pass, but even after she produced it from her vehicle, the driver wasn’t impressed.

“They were like, ‘Oh, it’s too late. It wasn’t in your car window,'” Cunningham said. “It cost $20 for the interrupted tow, and they scraped paint off my car.”

Throgmorton said he wishes people would remember that towing companies work for the community. After an accident, he said it’s the police, the ambulance and then the tow trucks. They also unlock car doors mistakenly locked.

Throgmorton said he thinks it’s partly students’ fault because they don’t read the signs, or if they do, they choose to ignore them. If people didn’t park illegally, towing wouldn’t be a problem, he insisted.

“In the past 10 years or so, we’ve added several hundred parking places in the downtown area,” City Manager Jeff Doherty said. “Now, it may not be right in front of a building. You may have to walk a block.”

The increase was the first since 1997. Requests were also made at the city council meeting to increase interrupted tow fees from $20 to $25 and to add $10 if other towing devices such as a dolly or winch had to be used. These requests were not approved.