photo by: Joselyn King

Ohio County Chief Deputy Kent Lewis, left, and Sheriff Nelson Croft discuss eliminating older and unused vehicles in the department’s fleet and leasing newer ones during Tuesday’s county commission meeting.

The Ohio County Sheriff’s Office is seeking to unload its well-known Hummer and nine other vehicles as the county moves toward leasing six new vehicles for the department.

The 2005 Hummer has just 5,495 miles on it, and is among older and mostly unused vehicles in the department’s fleet that are being eliminated. Another of note is a 2019 transit van with approximately 1,600 miles on it.

The van was a purchase by a past administration that really didn’t work out as planned, Sheriff Nelson Croft explained.

The Hummer, meanwhile, was procured by the department following a drug seizure.

“The Hummer is basically worthless to us except for parades,” he said. “We are at the point now that it is time to sell it. It was a novelty for a while, but it ran its course.”

Croft told the commissioners it was up to them now what to do with the 10 vehicles he is taking out of service, as they “are the owners of them.”

Commissioner Randy Wharton suggested the van might be of use to the Ohio County Development Authority.

Commissioners did not make a decision Thursday on how to proceed with the vehicles, but they did pass a motion to lease six new vehicles for the department.

Past years have seen the county outright purchase new vehicles, but County Administrator Randy Russell explained that a move toward leasing seems appropriate at this time.

The agreement approved by commissioners would have the county paying about $1,000 per vehicle per month over the next five years for the six vehicles which are Chevrolet Tahoes to be used on patrol.

“Rather than expending nearly $400,000 this year ($360,000 on new vehicles), we will spend $72,000,” Russell said. “This will level out our expenditures, and maybe allow us to replace cars more quickly because we’ve reduced our up-front expenditures.”

“It works out pretty much the same in the end. We think we will be able to keep our expenditures relatively flat over time, but be able to rotate the cars in and out more quickly.”

The commissioners will next meet at 8 a.m. on Feb. 3.