MANHATTAN — The Riley County Law Board on Tuesday voted to change the way it approaches purchasing and replacing vehicles.
Rather than make large vehicle purchases at the end of the budget cycle, those purchases moving forward will be done at the start of the year. RCPD Director Dennis Butler explained the reason he suggested the change.
RCPD uses a Vehicle Replacement Index from the City of Manhattan as its measure for vehicle replacement. The VRI scores fall into four conditional categories for each department vehicle that rank vehicles from excellent to needing immediate replacement. The department has three vehicles that currently fall into the latter category. To purchase three up-to-date 2019 vehicles, the purchase price will be just over $138,000. Butler says it makes sense if a vehicle needs replacement to do it in a timely fashion.
Capt. Josh Kyle says the old approach made it difficult for RCPD to have available funds later in the year for flexibility.
Kyle says thankfully most of the equipment in those vehicles, which comes separately, is transferable into the new vehicles.
After the Labor Day flood event, RCPD was able to determine it costs about $20,000 to equip its police cars. Having the line item in the budget will help better assess leftover funds to be able to make those equipment purchases in the future.
