Fort Oglethorpe adding vehicles to police fleet
The city of Fort Oglethorpe approved the purchase of five new patrol vehicles for its police department fleet on Monday night, Aug. 28
Chief Mike Helton proposed the purchase of five new 2018 Dodge Chargers, an expenditure that was unanimously approved by the City Council.
“These are the V-6 models, not the V-8s with the larger engines,” Helton said. “We determined that we didn’t need a V-8 engine within the city, and that lowers our cost a bit.”
The new cars will phase out some 2005-08 model vehicles that are in need of replacement.
Helton says that after checking around, he was able to secure a great deal on the vehicles through Mountain View Chrysler Dodge in Ringgold.
“For these five, the total charge for each vehicle with the equipment the equivalent to what we have out on the street at this time is $29,792,” Helton said. “The cars themselves in this case are at $19,427 each, which is substantially less than the state contract price. The closest state contract price I could find for these was $22,851. We found a substantial difference from our local dealer in Ringgold, and we’re getting an extremely low price through this dealership. They also have the capability to install all the other equipment needed for the vehicles.”
The overall cost comes to $148,960, a sum that will be paid for with SPLOST funds.
Also, Helton says the plan is to keep some of the older vehicles for parts, and auction the rest off as surplus.
“Our supervisors will be conducting some final analysis to determine which ones we’re going to swap out,” Helton said. “We found a good option for the vehicles we’re replacing. We’ve had fender benders and repairs that’ve been needed in the past where we would have had to go out and spend a lot of money to replace them, but instead took parts from vehicles we already had. Some of these cars, once we’re completely finished with them on the line, will go for other pieces to save us money. So if we have a fender bender, we can replace something that breaks down with something from one of the cars we’re replacing. It’s been cost-effective for us during the last budget year.”
Helton added that the life expectancy on the new vehicles is at least a decade.
“In our city, with our jurisdiction, we can make cars last longer,” Helton said. “Our guys take good care of and pride in their vehicles, and they aren’t driven from one end of the county to the other like those with the sheriff’s department, or all over like the state patrol vehicles. We hope to get at least 10 years out of them.”