HOLLISTER
The city is considering purchase of six new police patrol cars using $213,000 in state grant funds.
Hollister City Council members are set to approve the purchase as part of Monday night’s consent agenda. The meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. at Hollister City Hall, 375 Fifth St.
In a staff report to council members, Chief Jeff Miller noted how the department had not purchased a new patrol car in six years and that there were several vehicles with mileage exceeding 90,000 and parts so worn it would be “fiscally imprudent to repair them.”
The city would buy six 2009 Ford Crown Victoria with each costing about $26,400 and a total cost of $213,000.
The department’s fleet includes 26 marked cars. Twenty-one are assigned, two are set aside as spare vehicles and three are permanently disabled, Miller notes in his report.
He also points out that the 21 assigned cars are operated about 40 to 55 hours per week and the department uses “individual assignments” rather than a standard “pool” car set-up used in other agencies where vehicles can rack up nearly 170 miles per week. This approach extends the life of Hollister cars beyond the usual two- to three-year life span, the report notes.
City Manager Clint Quilter said no local funds would be needed for the purchases, which would use all but about $3,000 left from the Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Fund grant.
“It’s to use that grant money,” Quilter said. “That’s what it’s for, is to buy equipment. It needs to get used, and they (the cars) are needed.”
