By Amy Batista, Special Writer
HIGHTSTOWN – Council discussed purchasing Sport Utility Vehicles for the police department to replace three vehicles during its meeting on Nov. 16.
Mayor Larry Quattrone questioned if all of the town’s police cars were paid for.
“They will be by the end of the year,” said Chief Financial Officer George Lang, adding that they would be paid off this month.
“We usually purchase three vehicles,” Mayor Quattrone said. “Each year we purchase one in two payments.” He said at the end of the three years the town owns on all three of them.
“The cars that we have now all exceed 100,000 miles in our fleet,” he said.
Borough Administrator Henry Underhill said that there are nine cars that the town uses, including one county donated car.
“And a bus that we don’t use that we are going to be getting rid of,” he said. “Of the nine cars that we do use, two are over 100,000, one’s at 97,000. We have one at 91,000 and two in the mid-80s.” He said the three vehicles the town bought a couple of years ago are 32,000, 29,000 and 46,000 miles.
Mayor Quattrone said that the town has identified three vehicles that it would like to get retire.
“I see you have identified the three cars that he is interested in getting rid of,” he said. “I believe one of them has a bad transmission. I believe one of them is the K-9 car and the other one is the excessive miles, the 110,000 miles.”
Mr. Underhill said that the K-9 car is going to become the housing officer’s car.
Council member Steven Misiura questioned the need for nine cars when there are two given police officers on duty at any given time.
“I was just wondering first of all why we need nine police cars,” said he said. “I can see buying one car a year over the next three years,” he said.
Mr. Underhill said, “The problem with where we are at right now is you have nine cars and they are never all on the road at the same time. You look at these miles and add then figure to add the time that they are running just sitting there.”
There’s a lot more time on the engines then there is in the miles, he added.
Council member Misiura asked how big of a fleet the department needs.
“So if you have three then you have at least another three,” Mr. Underhill said. “Then you need some back ups in case they break down or need some service. There are quite a few of them that are becoming a maintenance nightmare,” he said.
Council member Charles “Lee” Stults said during the summer he personally saw one break down at the end of his street.
“A tow truck had to come and take it,” he said. “That was the middle of the day on a routine patrol. That was a non-emergency routine patrol and it just broke down.”
Mr. Stults raised concerns what if it happened during an emergency.
“I am not asking to spend money in November, but what I would like to do is everybody tries to buy cars at the beginning of the year,” Mr. Underhill said. “Then what you run into is you can’t get the cars, they get back ordered and then they change the model years and it can be six months.”
He said what he would like to do is get permission to get working on this before the end of year so once January comes they can actually purchase the vehicles.
“I’m asking for three but whatever number of cars you would like us to be able to purchase,” he said.
Those are state contract prices, he added. “They are $20,000 some dollars and then there are several thousands of dollars worth of equipment,” he said.
He said if they get rid of three Crown Victorias they are getting what they refer to now as the Police Interceptor (Utility).
“So the equipment, the cage in the back, some of that stuff just doesn’t fit,” he said. “I was told that most of those light bars are old and it’s time to upgrade the light bar and the computer.”
He said the good news is and the other thing to consider is that because these three vehicles are in the SUV category they could be bonded.
“If you bonded those it would be based on three years of borrowing at the rate we are getting for notes,” he said, adding it would be cheaper than going through their financing.
Mayor Quattrone said the last three cars that the town bought were Ford Taurus. Mr. Underhill said it’s the better way to go because of the storage space and because of all the stuff they carry.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, resident Doug Mair brought up the discussion council was going to have over purchasing additional police vehicles.
“I don’t want you to do that,” he said. “I don’t want you to purchase any police vehicles until each and every one of you can tell me that we are going to keep the police department. We’re going to keep them for now. We’re not getting rid of them this minute. I really want to hear from each and every one of you that yes we were going to keep them. So don’t spend any of my money buying a police car until you tell me we are going to have a police officer from Hightstown driving it,” he said. “I don’t want you buying a police car for East Windsor, Robbinsville, Cranbury or anybody else,” he said.
Mr. Mair said if the town is going to keep the police department, then he wants a police station that meets the Department of Corrections standards.
“The reason I want that is for my public safety and if you’re not interested in my public safety then I am going to ask the Attorney General in the great State of New Jersey if they are interested in my public safety,” he said.
He said that it has been more than a year since the town has had a police director.
“The ordinance clearly states that we are to have a police director and the police commissioner is suppose to name one within a short order,” he said. “I would like to know where we are at on that too. Before we buy any money on police cars and anything we need to addressed the police director and let, he or she, decide that. We should not be having a borough administrator or a supervising lieutenant purchasing police vehicles or police equipment. We should have a police director,” said Mr. Mair.
