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Sheriff requests new vehicles; court to explore purchase or lease and county discusses $440,000 radio upgrade
Summary
The sheriff's office presented quotes for three new patrol vehicles and a Motorola quote to move the county to a digital radio system; the court authorized exploring purchase or lease options and discussed grant possibilities.
The Knott County Fiscal Court on July 15 reviewed the sheriff’s request for replacement vehicles and discussed a countywide radio system upgrade.
A sheriff’s office representative presented quotes for three vehicles — two model years of Ram pickup (2023 and 2024) and a 2024 Chevrolet Tahoe pursuit vehicle — with fully outfitted prices read in the meeting roughly between $55,568 and $59,653 apiece. The sheriff said most vehicles in the fleet have more than 100,000 miles and requested county assistance to replace them.
Court members discussed leasing as an alternative to outright purchase; one member recommended getting lease‑versus‑buy numbers and conferring with other counties that lease fleets to maintain newer vehicles. The court moved and voted to explore both leasing and purchasing options and to assist the sheriff’s department where feasible.
Meeting participants also reviewed a Motorola quote to convert the county to a digital radio system to improve coverage. The quote in the packet, cited by the sheriff’s representative, was approximately $440,000 and included base infrastructure plus eight mobile radios and eight handheld units. Speakers discussed applying for homeland security grants and other federal monies and emphasized testing coverage maps before full procurement.
The court did not commit county funds for the radio system at the meeting; it approved staff moving forward to obtain leasing and purchasing language and to test radio coverage and grant options.
