MINER — Federal drug seizure money will pay for Miner’s new police patrol cars and other law enforcement equipment.
Purchases totaling about $64,000 for the Miner Police Department were approved during the city’s regular Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday. Police Chief Roger Moore said the city recently received about $68,000 from federal authorities as its share of seized drug money.
Moore first presented his proposal to the board to replace two patrol vehicles in his fleet that have nearly 100,000 miles on each of them.
The list price on two 2008 police interceptors from Courtesy Ford is $55,210 with a trade in of $19,426 for the city’s two cars for a total of $35,784 for the two new cars, according to Moore.
Other purchases include equipping all four of the department’s police vehicles with new LED light bars and compatible siren boxes; a dashboard camera for the one car that doesn’t have one yet; and two “spy cams” for vehicle drug searches.
Bids for the LED light bars came in at just under $7,000 and the siren boxes at about $1,300. The old light bars and siren boxes will go to the Miner Fire Department, Moore said.
The dash camera will cost about $4,800 and the spy cams, which enable officers to quickly see what is in hidden areas of vehicles without taking the cars apart, cost about $400 each.
Moore also advised board members of an opportunity to obtain a Live Scan fingerprinting system with no initial cost but asked for no action at this time on that item.
In other business during Tuesday’s meeting:
• Following the acceptance of the results of the May 6 special election held to break the April 8 tie for mayor between Mitch Thompson and Betty Barnes, Thompson was sworn in for a two-year term.
• Board members approved the adoption of the 2006 International Building Codes.
• A caterer’s license for Joyce Winchester was approved.
“She’s just requesting it for a wedding that she’s going to be catering out at the Best Western for just that one Saturday,” City Clerk Janet Tuttle explained.
• Board members approved the purchase of two mowers from the low bidder, Medlin Equipment Co., for $27,800 with the trade in of the city’s current mower.
Also bidding was Aufdenberg Equipment Co.
• Appointments, which were to have included city attorney, city engineer, city treasurer, mayor pro-tem, Tourism Advisory Board member, Planning and Zoning members, and Board of Adjustment members, were tabled as requested by Thompson.
A meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to make the appointments.
