Fire department, police department and sheriff’s office request SPLOST funds for vehicle purchases

Published 7:18 pm Friday, October 18, 2019

The Dalton Fire Department, Dalton Police Department and Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office made pitches Thursday to the SPLOST Advisory Committee, with the majority of requests focused on vehicles.

The DPD considers myriad factors in deciding when to replace vehicles, including years of service, miles, cost of continued operations and cost of repairs, said Cliff Cason, chief of police. Vehicles are assigned to officers, and they are their “office and work space,” so “they run all the time.”

The department’s current criteria for replacing patrol vehicles is six years of service time and/or 100,000 miles accumulated, or seven years and/or 100,000 miles for unmarked vehicles, Cason said. As patrol vehicles reach 100,000-plus miles, repair needs increase significantly, which leads to additional downtime for those vehicles.

Should the department receive the SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) funds Cason is requesting, he plans to add 10 vehicles, seven patrol and three unmarked, in 2020; eight vehicles, five patrol and three unmarked, in 2021; 12 patrol vehicles in 2022; and 13 vehicles, nine patrol and four unmarked, in 2023, he said. That would be a total cost of $1,961,942.

The vehicles are his top priority, and costs for police cars rise each year, so “it’s never going to be cheaper than now,” he said. “We have to be able to reliably get to calls.”

His second request is for an additional building next to the current police station to store and process evidence, he said. The police department has been in its current building since 1997, and the property and evidence section is “very, very confined.”

The department holds 18,000-20,000 pieces of evidence at any given time, and while staff check each month to see what, if anything, can be discarded, criminal statutes demand most evidence be saved, sometimes for years, Cason said. There’s no room in the current building to add more storage, either.

“We have absolutely used every square inch of space,” he said. The cost of a new 6,000-square-foot building, which would include storage space, an evidence processing lab and two bays for processing vehicles, is estimated at $1,621,000.

The Dalton Fire Department needs four vehicles to replace aged current models, and firetrucks increase in cost approximately 8% annually, said Todd Pangle, the fire chief. The total cost for the four replacements would be $3,812,000.

The department tries to follow a routine where “first out” trucks, the ones that are sent out first to calls, are in regular service for 15 years, followed by five years in “reserve,” a time during which they’re deployed only when “first out” vehicles are unavailable due to maintenance, Pangle said. Then, after 20 years, they’re sold at auction in order to recover some investment.

The firetruck outfitted with a 75-foot aerial ladder that dates to 2002 is the top priority, as it currently has accrued 100,000 miles, and maintenance costs have increased by roughly 8% on the vehicle the past three years, he said. The cost of a replacement is estimated at $1.1 million, which includes equipment.

A pair of pumper trucks dating to 2001 and 2002 are next on the list, with replacements for them estimated at $756,000 each, he said. The 2001 pumper has logged more than 91,000 miles and 9,200 hours of service, while the latter has accumulated more than 86,000 miles.

Finally, there’s the Hackney Heavy Rescue, purchased in 2006, which will be designated for hazardous materials calls when replaced, he said. The estimated cost of replacement for that vehicle is $1 million.

The sheriff’s office also needs to replace vehicles, said Capt. Paul Woods. “(We’re) in dire need of vehicles.”

The sheriff’s office has 132 vehicles in various divisions, and 24 of the 63 patrol vehicles have at least 100,000 miles on them, Woods said. The average life expectancy for a patrol vehicle is 125,000-150,000 miles.

Nearly half of the 15 vehicles used by court services have at least 100,000 miles on them, six of 26 Criminal Investigations Division vehicles have at least 100,000 miles, and eight of 10 detention department vehicles have hit that 100,000 mark, he said. The typical cost for a replacement vehicle is $45,000, and the sheriff’s office requires 12 replacements annually “just to maintain.”

Woods requested $2.1 million during his presentation. That would provide approximately a dozen vehicles per year over a four-year SPLOST, the majority of which would be in the patrol division.

The 16-member advisory committee, which will make recommendations to the county Board of Commissioners, was formed in the wake of Whitfield County voters defeating a six-year, $100 million SPLOST proposal in March. The most recent SPLOST for Whitfield County expired June 30.

That SPLOST “was very beneficial for” the police department, said Cason. It was “a blessing” in allowing the DPD to replace numerous vehicles with more fuel-efficient models and reduce a carbon footprint.

With funds from the last SPLOST, the fire department purchased two engine trucks and an air/light truck, all three of which were “very much appreciated and very much needed,” Pangle said. “We got close to get on track with (our) replacement schedule” with the last SPLOST.

Should a new SPLOST allot funds for the fire department’s vehicle needs, Pangle could shift his focus to addressing other issues at the DFD, he said. For example, one fire station needs a new roof at a cost of roughly $500,000, and the training ground parking lot “is sinking,” requiring approximately $250,000 to rectify it.

A SPLOST is a 1% percent tax on most goods sold in the county. The revenues can be used for certain types of projects but they can not be used for general operating expenses.

Meetings of the advisory committee are open to the public, and they can be streamed online at https://livestream.com/accounts/25637515/events/7960637. The next advisory committee meeting is Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Mack Gaston Community Center.