County Commissioners Approve Vehicle Purchases

At their July 17 meeting the Lincoln County Commissioners approved the purchase of three used vehicles for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Todd Brackett and Major Ken Mason gave their recommendations for the best buy for the money for two SUVs and one program car. The board voted to spend $13,999 on a 2011 Impala sedan, $26,989 for a 2012 Cherokee, and $26,135 for a 2011 Durango. The total of $67,113 was offset by a trade-in of $9700, which brought the total expenditure to $57,413.

The commissioners received seven bids, and chose the Newcastle Chrysler bid.

Commissioner Lynn Gilley Orne reluctantly voted to approve the purchase. “I have a tough time spending this amount of money,” Orne said. “When people see the county purchase vehicles that are top drawer, it doesn’t pass the straight face test. I’ll make the motion (to buy them) but I’m not happy.”

All vehicles have low mileage, and the SUVs are necessary, said Brackett, because the 4-wheel drive is important to have in bad weather, “or if we need to get down a fire road,” said Brackett.

The vehicles are for Lieutenants Maker and Murphy and Detective Micheau.

Brackett also said that the larger vehicles have extra space for mobile command equipment.

In other businessInterim EMA/911 Director Tod Hartung reported that the total of calls for service to date for 2012 is 21,418 for the period of Jan. 1 through July 17. This is an increase of 3828 over the same period last year, which had 17,590 calls, Hartung said. Between July 3 and July 17 the EMA/911 Communications received 1784 calls.

The commissioners discussed the upcoming Maine County Commissioners Association Convention with county administrator John O’Connell.