Sheriff Will Boost Fleet

Sheriff Will Boost Fleet

By David Howell

Editor

WATER VALLEY – Sheriff Lance Humphreys received authorization to purchase a 2015 Dodge truck for his department, a vehicle he told supervisors is desperately needed to boost his aging fleet that includes vehicles approaching 300,000 miles.

Speaking at the “first Monday” supervisor meeting in Water Valley on Feb. 1,  Humphreys told supervisors the truck will be financed for three years and payments will be funded from money he receives from the U.S. Corps of Engineers to patrol recreational areas at Grenada and Enid lakes. Last November the Corps requested an increase in the number of daily patrols at the lakes, pushing the income the sheriff’s department receives for lake patrols from $20,000 to almost $50,000 annually.

The increase in lake patrols will boost the fund that had been utilized prior to the recession in 2008 to fund the annual salary of one deputy and the bulk of a purchase price for one new vehicle each year.  

“When the recession hit they cut the money out,” Humphreys explained Monday. After the cut, Humphreys reported his annual allocation for vehicle purchases dropped $5,600 annually, an amount he said would fund one new vehicle each four years. That cut meant that after three new vehicles were purchased in 2007, another new vehicle was purchased in 2010 and his last new vehicle came in 2014. During that gap, Humphreys purchased used vehicles and received a donated car from the Warren County Sheriff’s Depart-ment.  The sheriff also explained it takes eight vehicles to outfit his department.

  “I want everyone to understand, that if for some reason this lake money doesn’t come we will have to shuffle funds to pay for this because we will be obligated,” Board President Cayce Washington said during the brief discussion that followed the sheriff’s request. 

“We are in desperate need for vehicles,” Humphreys reiterated.

“I shared with the sheriff in a meeting outside of here that I wanted to see him have good people and vehicles, but we also have to stay within the money allotted to the departments. That is something that can get over (budget) real quick, we have to manage the overtime and all that stuff. If the numbers work and we can pay for it, I don’t have an issue with it personally,” Washington continued.

“He needs the cars to do his job,” District 4 Supervisor Timothy Booker agreed.

District 5 Supervisor Gaylon Gray made the motion for the purchase and an unanimous vote followed.

Monday’s meeting also coincided with a public hearing scheduled as part of the application process for a rural development grant that could fund 55 percent of the purchase price for an additional two new vehicles for the sheriff’s department.

“With the grant, we could purchase two more for a total of three this year. This would help our fleet tremendously,” Humphreys added. The sheriff said a budget overage for insurance in his department could be reallocated to pay the county’s matching portion of the grant estimated at $21,000 for the two new cruisers. 

Humphreys said a fourth new vehicle could also be purchased in 2017, after the final payment for the vehicle purchased in 2014 is retired.