Sheriff to buy six HSPD vehicles
The Garland County Quorum Court adopted an ordinance Monday night allowing the Garland County Sheriff’s Department to use an insurance reimbursement for the purchase of six patrol cars being decommissioned by the Hot Springs Police Department.
Sheriff Mike McCormick said the city will be paid $ 1,500 for each of the Ford Crown Victorias, helping offset the nine vehicles he said the department has removed from its fleet this year. The $ 10,418 insurance payment the department received from a June 2 accident that totaled a 2010 Dodge Charger is paying for the purchase.
“( The police department) is setting down some older vehicles that have relative low miles, especially when it’s in
comparison to what we have at the sheriff ’ s department,” McCormick told justices of the peace.
“One has somewhere between 60,000 to 70,000 miles, and a couple have a little over 100,000. Some are in need of a little body work, but all in all they’re sound vehicles.”
The ordinance also authorized the purchase of a $ 400 transmission from the police department. McCormick said it will be transferred to a high- mileage patrol unit.
“It’s going into a vehicle that has 207,000 miles,” he told justices of the peace. “Its mileage didn’t justify taking it to one of the local transmission shops, where they can run from $ 1,500 to $ 1,600.”
McCormick said the cars, which will come equipped with law enforcement features such as cages and consoles, meet an immediate need.
“We are in a critical point in the sheriff’s department to where we don’t have vehicles for people to drive,” he told justices of the peace. “… Getting six vehicles will help us limp along. We’re hoping to get by with painting them, putting our stripes on them and putting radios in them, and they should be good to go.”
McCormick said two of the new Dodge Ram trucks the department ordered with the $ 100,000 it was allocated for new vehicles in 2015 should arrive in the next few months. Another two are expected to be delivered by the end of the year.
The Dodge Chargers’ lower repair costs and greater fuel efficiency notwithstanding, McCormick has said the trucks are a better bargain. For the cost of three Chargers, he said the county was able to buy four trucks, which he said have greater durability on uneven county and private roads.
McCormick told the Finance Committee earlier this year that the fleet management plan he intends to implement will remove all units with more than 100,000 miles from patrol duty.
The quorum court unanimously adopted the following resolutions and ordinances:
• Resolutions authorizing County Judge Rick Davis to apply for Department of Rural Service Community Fire Protection grants totaling $ 44,037 on behalf of the Morning Star Fire Department. The department is applying for money to buy extrication equipment and fire- resistant suits.
• A resolution authorizing Davis to apply for a $ 5,000 Department of Rural Service Community Fire Protection Grant on behalf of the Jessieville Fire Department. The department is applying for money to buy 10 portable radios.
• An ordinance authorizing the Garland County Detention Center to establish a written policy to award meritorious good time to its inmates. State law allows the sentences of county inmates to be reduced up to 10 days for every 30 days served.
• An ordinance appropriating $ 42,972 from the General Fund to the sheriff ’ s department budget for the 2015 salaries and benefits of school resource officers for the Cutter Morning Star and Jessieville school districts. The expense will be fully reimbursed by the schools.
The difference in the positions’ 12- month salaries, $ 32,619 for the CMS officer and $ 38,343 for Jessieville’s, owes to the seniority levels of the deputies, McCormick told the committee. He said deputies of varying rank and experience applied for the positions, and that members from both school boards participated in the selection process.
• An ordinance appropriating a $ 1,300 insurance reimbursement deposited in the General Fund July 10 to the courthouse maintenance department budget. The reimbursement is for damage done by a vehicle that ran into a section of the wroughtiron fence fronting the Garland County Court House on Ouachita Avenue June 24.
• An ordinance appropriating $ 24,000 from the Ouachita Memorial Hospital Sale Fund for the funding of an alternative placement program that keeps juvenile offenders out of the county’s juvenile detention center. The OMH fund will be reimbursed by the Department of Human Services’ Division of Youth Services grant the county was awarded to fund the program.
• An ordinance appropriating $ 4,508 from the June and July National School Lunch Program reimbursements deposited into the General Fund. The money goes to the juvenile detention center for providing its inmates with nutritious breakfast, lunch and snack items.