MARION -- The purchase of three new sport-utility vehicles for the Marion Police Department was unanimously approved on Monday night by the Marion City Council. In a special meeting, Mayor Mike Absher and Commissioners Doug Patton, John M. Barwick Jr., Jim Webb and John Stoecklin looked over bids from three Southern Illinois Ford dealers, and went with Carbondale-based Vogler Motor Company, which came in lowest.
The MPD will take possession of two Ford Explorers already on the lot, a black one at $27,645 and another SUV in the more-expensive white paint for $27,702. A third vehicle, a police-package Explorer, is on order for $37,747.
The council also voted 5-0 to finance the purchase of the vehicles with a loan from The Bank of Herrin, which had the low bid at a rate of 2.75 percent. Absher, board member and former chief executive of the Watermark Auto Group, said he was able to negotiate a lower price on the on-order Explorer, and save the city $1,238.
The purchase of the police vehicles was tabled from the June 24 regular meeting. Police Chief David Fitts had bids on four new police SUVs from Vogler. The purchases were covered in the department budget and urgently needed, he said. Absher and commissioners wanted bids from other dealers and more time to study the prices.
Under past city administrations, the purchase of new police vehicles was relatively simple, in that bids would be sought from car dealers in Marion only. A couple of issues made this purchase more complex -- Absher's conflict-of-interest policy that prohibits the city from doing business with his business -- Marion's only Ford dealer -- and the fact that police officers would rather drive Fords. The city in the past has acquired other vehicles than Fords for the police, but officers say none have proved to have better value and durability, MPD officers say. Additionally, the Ford Explorers are easier to modify to police specifications.
The SUVs being purchased in Carbondale will replace aged Ford Crown Victorias, which are well past their service years, as was noted in the June 24 meeting by Barwick, public safety commissioner and a retired Illinois State Police master sergeant.
Fourth vehicle found
Mayor Absher additionally commended Public Safety Director Brian Fisher for volunteering to give up his city take-home vehicle -- a 2017 Ford Explorer with around 24,000 miles and emergency light bar already installed. Chief Fitts is now driving that one, while Fisher is behind the wheel of a city-surplus 2013 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, which the mayor had initially offered the police department. Asked about the move, Fisher was humble.
"I just want to do what is right for the taxpayers," he said.
The mayor credited the MPD and City Hall staff for pulling together to "rethink" the police-vehicle purchases.
"We saved the city around $40,000 doing it that way," he said.
Surplus property sold
The sale of two parcels of surplus city real estate was unanimously approved in Monday's special meeting. An awkwardly shaped landlocked parcel in the Robert L. Butler Industrial Park was sold to adjacent landowner Mark Schwarm for $6,500 an acre, with the final price to be figured by a legal survey to determine whether it is 5.3 or 5.4 acres.
And a 2.5-acre parcel on East Main Street was sold to Lee Thomason for $75,000. The land had initially been purchased by the city years ago from Thomason for $150,000 as the site of a possible east-side fire station. But that plan proved to be financially unfeasible, due to the costs of adequately staffing a second station.
