>> BALDWIN COUNTY
The Baldwin County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday and approved a program that will lease out new vehicles to departments county-wide.
The commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to adopt the Fiscal Year of 2023 budget that begins on Jan. 1 and ends on Dec. 31 of 2023.
The board was presented with the Enterprise Fleet Management contract program which was initially presented to the Sheriff’s department to better manage the fleet of vehicles they have. This program is set up as a capital leasing program so that SPLOST funds may be used to pay for it.
This year-to-year contract program will include multiple departments’ fleets across the county. The entire fleet will be replaced and circulated every four years, according to Assistant County Manager Dawn Hudson. The initial cost of the first year, according to recommendations from Enterprise, is about $295,000. This will replace 52 vehicles county wide that are mostly 7 to 8 years or older.
“By the sixth year we will have completely transitioned into that lease program. Up until that point we will have a mix of leased and not leased vehicles,” said Henry Craig, chairman. “The value of the first year of this program is about $250,000 but in the long term of 10 years, we would have approximately $1.4 million savings as to what we would have spent if we tried to replace those vehicles ourselves. In addition, the sheriff’s department has highlighted that there is great value in having safer vehicles that have newer safety measures.”
According to Major Scott Deason, the estimate of $1.4 million saving would be correct in the long-run due to maintenance costs.
“I believe this is a better way than running our vehicles into the ground,” said Deason. “This will save our costs in maintenance and increase safety. We are in dire need of vehicles, and I believe this will impact the entire county.”
After thorough discussion, the board passed the contract unanimously.
The board unanimously approved a resolution for a 2022 Community Development Block Grant Language Assistance Plan. According to County Manager Carlos Tobar, less than 5% of Baldwin County’s population has limited English proficiency and 1.6% of the population speaks Spanish as their primary language. This plan allows them to hire a translator for this part of the population.
The board unanimously approved four grant awards. According to Hudson, they are continuation grants for funding previously received and in need of approval for the new year.
The next board of commissioners meeting will be on Dec.20 at 6 p.m.