Jones County waives formal bid to speed parks golf-cart lease renewal

On April 21, 2026, the Jones County Board of Commissioners approved a motion to waive the county's formal bidding process and instead solicit three written quotes to renew the parks and recreation golf-cart lease.

A staff member reviewed the timeline for the fleet, saying the county last put the lease out for formal bid in 2017 and renewed the lease at the end of 2021. “I'm asking once again if y'all would consider waiving the bid process really just because it will allow us to expedite the process,” the staff member said, and added the county will request quotes from Easy Go, Yamaha and Club Car and compare those against state-contract pricing.

The staff member noted the county's current fleet “is currently kind of at the end of its lifespan” and that putting together and running a full bid package would likely take about two months or more before a decision could be made. The staff member also said state contract options exist for all three vendors and that soliciting quotes would allow officials to determine whether vendors could offer prices below the state contract.

A commissioner raised a concern that routinely waiving bids for items with a limited set of manufacturers could create a precedent that would later be cited when purchasing other large equipment. The board discussed that the state-contract rates would preserve a measure of competitiveness by establishing price benchmarks.

After a motion to approve the waiver and a second, the board approved the request by voice vote; the meeting record shows the vote was taken by voice and no numeric tally was specified.

What was said and what happens next: the staff member told commissioners the county secured unusually favorable trade-in values and lower rates when it renewed at the end of 2021 — “$40 a cart plus 40-ish a cart plus another 20 a cart for the GPS,” according to the presentation — but cautioned that current market prices will likely be higher. The board directed staff to solicit and return with the three quotes for formal consideration.

The board did not set a final dollar amount in the meeting. The presenter said the timeline to prepare and run a full bid would likely extend decision-making by about two months, which the county judged unacceptable given the fleet's condition. The board's approval authorizes county staff to request quotes and report back; no final lease award was made at the April 21 meeting.