More than $1M in new squad cars to roll in

The Lake County Sheriff’s Department will be getting more than $1 million worth of new vehicles after the order was canceled last year by Ford due to supply chain issues.

Lake County Commissioners Wednesday accepted the bid from Jim Shorkey 1 White Oak LLC for 21 2023 Ford Interceptor utility vehicles at about $47,564 each for a total of about $998,803.

Shorkey was the lone bidder. The company, which runs an auto group in White Oak, Pennsylvania, was also the lone bidder for a 2023 Ford 350 High Roof Cargo AWD vehicle at $61,095.

That purchase also was approved.

“This is catch up,” Lake County Sheriff Police Chief Vince Balbo said, adding later these will be the only vehicles purchased this year. They expect to take delivery in the spring.

Deputy Commander Brian Marsh said the department had searched the country to find the vehicles.

Shorkey is a large auto group with numerous locations from which they were able to pull the desired vehicles from stock.

Commissioners also approved spending $251,345 with Shorkey to outfit the 18 marked patrol vehicles. Three will be unmarked vehicles. The three unmarked vehicles will be outfitted by Federal Signal for about $27,000.

Lowell Body Shop submitted the lone bid to paint the 18 vehicles at a cost of about $6,955.

The purchase comes after officials in December canceled a 2022 order for police-issued Ford Explorers after the automaker informed the department it would not be able to manufacture the ordered vehicles due to a microchip shortage and would no longer be making the police versions of the vehicle, instead focusing on Explorers for regular commercial sales.

At the time Balbo successfully sought to transfer the $200,000 that would have been spent equipping those new vehicles to purchase new next-generation police radios.

The new radios cost $12,000 each and are part of a new generation of technology that will enable police to communicate using traditional radio frequencies and Wi-Fi.

The council agreed to provide about $1.1 million in discretionary funds freed up through American Rescue Plan Act revenue replacement funds to help the department get closer to the $2.1 million needed for the entire purchase.