YOUNGSTOWN — The city is considering the creation of a business licensing program with shops that take old tires being the first to register.

Bob Burke, program coordinator for Green Youngstown, said Monday that about 30% of the 80 tire shops in the city are in compliance with state law for properly disposing of old tires.

“The city needs to crack down on these tire haulers and dumpers,” he said. “They’re doing it illegally and (we need to) make examples of them.”

Burke said illegal tire dumping is a serious problem in Youngstown.

By requiring businesses that take old tires to pay a registration fee and be inspected as often as four times a year to ensure the tires are properly disposed of with one of the 33 state-approved businesses that take them, the problem will get much better, Burke said.

As he did Dec. 17, Burke told city council’s public health committee Monday that increasing the penalty for those convicted of illegally dumping tires from a misdemeanor to a felony would be a benefit.

But some council members said if city prosecutors enforced Youngstown’s misdemeanor law in court, there wouldn’t be a problem.

“It’s about the enforcement,” said Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward. “It’s not about making it a felony.”

Later in the conversation, Davis said if more than one person is involved in a tire dumping crime, the city could charge them with felony racketeering.

Councilwoman Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward and chairwoman of the public health committee, said of licensing tire shops: “This is something that can be helpful and will help our problem.”

The registration cost would likely be $100 a year.

Turner said: “We are talking about two sets of things: one is the business side of it. These are the businesses that are handling tires, that are storing tires and we have another issue we are dealing with: people that are illegally dumping tires. We will have to solve both of those issues.”

Burke said some businesses store hundreds of tires, which poses a health danger.

Fire Chief Barry Finley said if one of those businesses caught on fire, it could be days before the blaze was extinguished and it would cause harmful chemicals to get into the atmosphere.

“When you talk about these shops that store all of these tires, if that building catches fire, the odds of us putting it out are slim to none because the fire load is so heavy,” he said. “The intensity of that petroleum burning, it’s a done deal. We’re going to drop that building.”

Finley said he’s seen one building in the city with tires stacked to the ceiling.

He said: “Every time I ride by, I’m like, lord, please do not let this place come in because there is literally nothing we can do but let it burn because it’s going to take days for that to happen. The health issues are going to be tremendous.”

There was a lengthy discussion as to what city department would be in charge of enforcement with the code enforcement or the health department being the likely enforcement agency with possible assistance from the police department.

Also, the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office used to be contracted by the city to enforce tire dumping and could be used again.

The city received a $40,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to properly dispose of illegally dumped tires, Burke said.

The public health committee plans to further discuss establishing a business licensing program for used tires at its meeting next month.

If the process goes well, the program could be established in the summer with licensing required by the end of the year, Turner said.