ALBEMARLE — Stanly County is now able to sell its surplus county vehicles to local fire districts and non-profit volunteer fire departments.
At the Stanly County Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday night, the board voted 7-0 to pass a resolution allowing the county to directly negotiate with fire districts and departments on potential sales of unneeded vehicles.
“We’ve had some requests from fire districts over the years regarding the purchase of our surplus vehicles,” County Manager Andy Lucas told the board. “We surplus our vehicles through GovDeals, and you have to monitor that. And so some of them have asked if there is any way that we could negotiate with you all to pay a fair-market value for a surplus vehicle.”
Lucas explained that multiple fire districts have reached out to the county inquiring about surplus four-wheel drive vehicles, such as Dodge Durangos and Ford Explorers.
The county manager reiterated that official records would be kept for all transactions and that this new resolution would help move the county away from its former method of offloading surplus vehicles through GovDeals, Inc.
“This would enable us to do it, instead of having to put it on GovDeals and then having to compete with somebody out there in Kansas or Mississippi or Alabama or wherever. They would be able to just do that directly,” Lucas said.
The new resolution — as passed by the board of commissioners — permits the county manager to use “Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds or similar trusted source for determining vehicle market values based on age, mileage and condition of the vehicle, and the records of such sale will maintained consistent with the county’s fiscal policies and other public, financial records.”
Commissioner Scott Efird then asked Lucas how successful the county has been at offloading its surplus vehicles on GovDeals, with the county manager responding that Stanly County has made “tens of thousands of dollars a year” by selling seasoned vehicles no longer needed by the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office and Stanly County Umbrella Services Agency (SCUSA).
Through GovDeals, some of the surplus vehicles are purchased with the intention of extended usage, while others are bought and scrapped for salvaged parts.
“I know the building inspection department has some pretty nice trucks,” Commissioner Bill Lawhon asked. “How many miles are on those trucks when we finally decide to sell?”
Lucas stated that the Stanly County Inspection Department owns one vehicle but typically chooses to utilize a 60-month lease with its vehicles through Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which allows county workers to drive the vehicles without mileage limits.
“We’re also watching the expense side of the maintenance,” he said. “If we’re having to spend a lot of money each year on maintenance, then at some point we have to strongly consider getting a new vehicle. Normally, our numbers are somewhere between 125,000 miles and 135,000 miles, and seven-to-eight years.”
The Stanly County Board of Commissioners is set to hold its next regular meeting on March 17 at 6 p.m. inside the Gene McIntyre Meeting Room at Stanly County Commons.