Guin approves police car lease purchase

GUIN — The City of Guin approved a lease purchase for a new police car during its regular meeting on Monday, Aug. 3.
Officer Jason Rhudy spoke to the council for the police department and explained the cost of consistent maintenance issues with a few of its vehicles was taking a bite out of the department’s annual budget, averaging up to about $1,000 a month over the course of a year.
Rhudy said those costs weren’t preventative maintenance, either, but unplanned repairs. Despite a new vehicle purchase not being budgeted, he said the new vehicle is needed.
Rhudy presented the city with two lease purchase options from two different suppliers, with only around a $7-900 difference between the two options. The more expensive option would allow the city to purchase a car with a front bumper already installed.
According to Rhudy, it would cost just over $2,000 to buy and install that same bumper if they went with the cheaper option. He suggested the city would actually save money by choosing the more expensive option.
Rhudy said the other option would be to purchase a newer used vehicle.
Mayor Bobby Bellew did some math and found the city was spending about $8,800 a year on maintenance for two vehicles specifically and reasoned that a hit to the budget for payments on a new car could be worth it to cut down on maintenance costs.
Councilman Mineo Lindsay also pointed out warranties would also cut down on maintenance costs for the first few years.
Bellew said the city also had several other surplus vehicles, and selling those would also cut down on the total cost of the purchase. He also proposed the city could go head and budget for another purchase next year and surplus another older vehicle to offset that cost.
In the end, the council approved the lease purchase of a new police car from Stivers, with surplus vehicle revenue going toward the principal, for an interest rate of 5 percent for 72 months through State Bank & Trust. The total cost of the vehicle is around $68,000.
During the meeting, the council also approved closing down old, unused bank accounts and moving those funds into the general budget for clearer, cleaner record-keeping.