Seoul, Glasgow and Toronto. Since 2000 the city has provided free Internet service to every household. It also has been ranked as a Georgia City of Excellence, and received a Government Technology Leadership Award. LaGrange was in the news in late January 2017 for the public apology of its police chief and mayor for the city's failure in 1940 to protect Austin Callaway, a 16-year-old African-American resident, from being lynched. The police did not report nor investigate his murder very thoroughly. On November 8, 2021, it was announced that Upstate New York-based firearms manufacturer, Remington Arms, would be moving their global headquarters from Ilion, New York to La Grange, and would be hiring 865 people over the span of five years. Construction is expected to cost $100 million. The southern half of the city was heavily damaged by an EF2 tornado on January 12, 2023. The tornado injured four people along its path as well. Geography LaGrange is at 33.0367° N, 85.0319° W. The city is in west central Georgia along Interstates 85 and 185, which run east of the city, with Interstate 85 leading northeast to Atlanta and southwest to Montgomery, Alabama. Interstate 85 gives direct access to the city from exits 13, 14 and 18. Interstate 185 runs south from the city to Columbus. U.S. Route 27, U.S. Route 29, Georgia State Route 219, and Georgia State Route 109 all meet in the interior of the city. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and is water. Government LaGrange is governed by a mayor and six-person city council. The mayor is elected citywide (at-large). Three council members are elected to one post each from each of two council districts, designated as 1a, 1b, and 1c from the first district, with similar naming for posts in the second district. Candidates must declare for a post in one of the districts at the time of their filing, and must win a majority to be elected. This system was established for the first municipal election in 2011. (This was in compliance with a consent decree and court order settling litigation since 1982 under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.) Previously a smaller number of city council members were elected at-large; as each candidate had to command a majority of electors, the minority seldom could elect a candidate of