Ellington

Three local wrecker-service companies are refusing to tow city owned large commercial vehicles after the city lowered towing fees at an Aug. 10 City Council meeting. Trey Ward, owner of Ward's Wrecker Service, confirmed that the three wrecker services are refusing to tow a city asphalt truck out of protest against the revised city towing ordinance.

"There's so many legal loopholes and things in there that regulate how much we can charge that nobody's going to go after it—not til they change the ordinance," Ward said. "We're all banded together on this."

Along with Hayle's Towing and Recovery and Hall's Towing Services, Ward's handles heavy-duty towing jobs for the city. On Aug. 10, the Council voted 4-3 to lower towing fees for cars and light trucks from $100 to $75 and to cap fees on heavy-duty trucks, those weighing more than 15 tons, at $185. The revised fees are so low that wrecker companies would lose money taking calls, Ward argued.

"A lot of these little, small wrecker services out there aren't realizing this, so the big ones got together and said, ‘Look, either they're going to change it, or we're not going to use the heavy-duties,'" Ward said.