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Houston County will get ‘09 squad car at ‘08 price |
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
Sometimes being late can actually be advantageous. The Houston County Board found that to be true when it came to purchasing a new patrol car for the County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff Doug Ely told the board at the April 22 meeting that the first of three Dodge Chargers budgeted for 2008 is in transit. The second one hasn’t been built yet, but is scheduled to be delivered this summer. Due to the demand for the popular Dodge Charger police interceptor, the manufacturer will not be able to fulfill its state bid commitments. So the county will be receiving a 2009 model later this year, at the 2008 price.
“We’re going to save between $1,000 and $1,500 because they couldn’t get the 2008 to us,” Ely told the board. “The Charger is getting to be a very popular police car. We really like them. We’re getting between four and five miles per gallon better mileage over what we got with the Crown Victorias (Fords). When you’re out on the highway, only four of the cylinders are firing, which really helps with the mileage. With the price of gas, this can be quite a savings with all the highway miles we put on.”
Commissioner Tom Bjerke asked if any of the law enforcement agencies in the state were going “green” and using hybrids. Ely replied some of the metro departments, where they have all in-town driving, have gone with some four cylinder vehicles. “But they wouldn’t be practical out in the country,” Ely noted.
Bjerke said he was quite pleased with the mpg the Chevrolet Impalas were getting. He asked Ely if the Sheriff’s Office had looked into that model. Ely said he hadn’t, that the Dodges were part of a state bid, and that he could the next time they would be replacing squad cars.
“The only problem I see with having different models is if we start servicing all of our vehicles at the new highway shop, we’d have to stock quite a few different parts,” Ely pointed out.
“I think if the Sheriff’s Office likes the Chargers, and they are getting four or five miles per gallon better mileage than the Fords, we should stick with the Dodges,” Commissioner Dave Corcoran said.
Ely said due to the purchase freeze the county had issued this past winter, he needed board approval to go ahead to order the third squad car. He added it had to be ordered on the state bid by the end of April.
A motion made by Commissioner Larry Graf and seconded by Bjerke was unanimously approved.
In other board action:
Advertise for appraiser
County Assessor Tom Dybing and Personnel Director Tim Comstock were on hand to discuss filling an opening in the Assessor’s Office that will occur May 30 when commercial property appraiser Rich Sather retires.
“Rich has been with us since 1996, and has done a great job, especially with the commercial appraising,” Dybing noted. “The chances of us finding someone with Rich’s experience to work here are real good.”
“Tom and I are recommending that the board approve advertising for a replacement and feel that we would be more successful in recruiting an ‘appraiser trainee,’ that could be trained to become a commercial property appraiser rather than trying to find someone with the required credentials,” Comstock added.
Dybing explained a potential appraiser must take two two-week courses and have one year of on the job training with a licensed appraiser before he or she becomes certified. He added that his staff is currently up to date with commercial appraisals, which must now be conducted every five years, instead of every four years, which was the previous requirement.
Comstock did point out that if they could find an applicant who had previous real estate or appraisal training or experience, that might qualify as some of the required education and/or training.
Commissioner Larry Connery asked Dybing if there was anyone on his staff that could fill in for him, in the event something happened to Dybing. Dybing replied on a short term basis, yes. But not long term.
“Tim and I have discussed this issue and probably will be looking at creating a deputy assessor’s position in the department,” Dybing said.
Work session scheduled
With the county looking at possibly combining the auditor and treasurer offices, and locating a number of county departments in the proposed highway building, Commissioner Ann Thompson felt the county board should do some brainstorming.
“It’s hard to do something like this at a regular meeting, when we have agenda items,” Thompson said. “Being that we have five Tuesdays in April, and don’t normally meeting on the fifth Tuesday, maybe we should have a work session to discuss these issues on April 29.”
The rest of the commissioners agreed and scheduled a work session for 9 a.m., April 29.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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