Garbage rates and highway speed limits are both on the Madras City Council agenda next week.

A proposal from Madras Sanitary Service would increase the monthly charge for home garbage pickup by as much as 7 percent.

Currently most residents pay $17.49 each month for weekly garbage pickup. Depending on how fees the garbage company pays change, the new rate for residents could go up to $18.72.

The garbage company cited rapidly increasing fuel costs, as well as growing expenses for insurance and wages, in requesting the rate increase, which the council must approve. Garbage rates in Madras have not gone up since 2005.

The Madras City Council will also consider a plan from the Oregon Department of Transportation to reduce speed limits on U.S. Highways 97 and 26 through parts of the city. Currently parts of the couplet through the city have posted speeds ranging from 25 mph to 45 mph.

All speeds in the couplet would be reduced to either 25 mph or 30 mph under the plan. North and south of the couplet inside the city limits, highway speeds would be reduced to between 30 mph and 45 mph. If the City Council OKs those changes, new signs would be installed this summer.

According to ODOT data, there have been 73 accidents and 54 injuries on those sections of the highways in the city between 2004 and 2006.

In Deschutes County, the County Commission next week will discuss agreements with the Tetherow destination resort at its meeting Wednesday morning. The agreements relate to installing streets and utilities in the next two phases of the project, senior planner Anthony Raguine said. Wednesday’s agenda items aren’t related to Tetherow’s efforts earlier this year to extend an agreement it has with the city of Bend over traffic improvements outside the development.

The County Commission will also discuss ways to exempt low-income residents in the La Pine area from having to pay to make nitrate improvements when they sell their homes. That discussion will happen in a work session Wednesday afternoon during which no comment period is scheduled. The commissioners will not vote on any decisions during the work session.

And in the Redmond City Council next week, the council is due to consider adopting a transportation plan update, as well as a public facilities plan.

If you go

Madras City Council

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: City Hall, 71 S.E. D St.

Deschutes County Commission

Meeting: 10 a.m. Wednesday

Work Session: 1:30 p.m. Wednesday

Where: County building, 1300 N.W. Wall St., Bend

Redmond City Council

When: 6:45 a.m. Tuesday; 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: 716 S.W. Evergreen Ave., Redmond