Commission OKs Purchase

SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT TO GET TWO ‘NEW’ VEHICLES

By Rick Peck

Thursday, February 28, 2013

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The McDonald County Commission approved the purchase of two used vehicles Monday for the McDonald County Sheriff’s Department.

The vehicles were purchased from the Missouri State Highway Patrol. One is a 2006 Chevrolet Impala with 54,000 miles. The cost was $10,000. The second is a 2008 Chevrolet four-wheel drive pickup with 84,000 miles. The cost was $11,000.

The bulk of the money to pay for the vehicles will come from insurance settlements for two sheriff ’s vehicles that were destroyed by fire late in 2012. One was involved in a wreck on the way to a call while the second was parked and lost when an electric line fell across an adjacent well house and started a fire.

Presiding Commissioner Keith Lindquist said the insurance settlements will leave a balance of about $2,000, which will come from the sheriff’s department budget.

Before new Sheriff Mike Hall took office on Jan. 1, he had hoped to purchase four new vehicles in addition to replacing the two burned cars as part of a rotation plan to switch-out vehicles at 100,000 miles instead of 200,000. That plan was scrapped when the 2013 budget reflected an eight percent drop in expected revenue for the year.

Two other vehicles from the sheriff ’s department sustained cosmetic damage in recent wrecks. Hall said on Feb. 9, Deputy Jeff Berryhill was turning off of Jesse James Road in Pineville onto 8th Street when he turned too sharp and clipped a car that had pulled up to the stop sign. He said Berryhill was disciplined for the wreck and must undergo emergency vehicle operator course (EVOC) training.

A second vehicle was damaged Feb. 21 when Deputy Richard Gidcumb responded to a stranded motorist at the intersection of Highway 76 and Route U and slid into the car on an ice-covered road.

Hall said there were no injuries at either wreck and that both of the sheriff ’s vehicles sustained “skin” damage with nothing mechanical broken.

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