Christian Fiscal Court approved purchases of vehicles by the sheriff’s office for five new school resource officers at a special-called meeting Thursday morning and approved funds to purchase a final parcel of land for construction of a re-routed Davis Road.
Sheriff Tyler DeArmond says the two Dodge Durangos and three Dodge Chargers will be purchased from Don Franklin Auto in Somerset at about $35,000 each, which is at or slightly under the state bid price.
A Dodge Durango Crew Cab is being purchased for the Christian County Coroner’s Office and Treasurer Walter Cummings says it replaces a pickup that was totaled in the December 11 tornado that hit south Christian County.
While the SRO vehicles are being financed in the Christian County Sheriff’s Office budget through the Kentucky Association of Counties, the county will be paying cash to make up the difference for the coroner’s office pickup.
The state declared a bridge over the railroad on Davis Road unsafe a couple years ago and when constructing a new bridge was determined to not be feasible, fiscal court decided to use state grant funds to purchase five necessary right-of-ways to extend Davis Road in the Mannington area and construct a new outlet onto Madisonville Road where a bridge isn’t necessary.
Treasurer Walter Cummings says the state determined the initial planned new outlet didn’t have safe lines of sight and asked the county to move it north, requiring a sixth parcel purchase at $10,000.
All of the action was approved unanimously.