The Wright City government has approved using lease-purchases to buy four new police vehicles, potentially heralding a long-term overhaul of the city’s police fleet.

During their April 22 board meeting, Wright City aldermen approved purchasing four Dodge Durangos from Lou Fusz. The city will lease-purchase the vehicles with yearly payments of about $57,000.

Police Chief Matt Eskew is pushing for the city to begin a policy of making similar new vehicle purchases every few years, phasing out the high-mileage used cars that officers have been working with. Most of the police department’s current vehicles are purchased pre-owned, usually from the Missouri Highway Patrol, Eskew said. But the cheaper vehicles come with a hidden cost: They require a lot of maintenance and are frequently taken out of service to go to the shop.

Buying those used police vehicles, Eskew said, is like buying a ticking time bomb.

“We start to run into issues anywhere between 80,000 to 100,000 miles,” Eskew said. “We’re used to operating with two or three vehicles down at a time. We’ve had a drive shaft just fall out of a vehicle, and we had to go and get it repaired.”

With as much money as the city has budgeted for buying and repairing used vehicles each year, Eskew said the $57,000 to lease-purchase four new vehicles is actually the cheaper option. Having newer vehicles would reduce the city’s high maintenance costs through fewer breakdowns, but also active warranties, Eskew said.

“If I’m able to replace a third of the fleet every three years, we’re going to have a lot of vehicles under warranty and be able to take them in and get them repaired, and not have such a costly budget.”

Aldermen also engaged in a lengthy debate of allowing officers who live inside city limits to take an older police vehicle home with them each night, both as a convenience and as an incentive to live in the city where they work. No decision was made in that discussion.

Other news

Millions in savings: City Administrator Jim Schuchmann delivered a summary in April of all the expenses and work involved in remodeling the new city hall on Westwoods Road and renovating the old city hall for sole use as a police station. The original contractor bid for both buildings was about $2.2 million, and was much more limited than the work the city has actually done, Schuchmann said.

Instead of a contractor agency, the city chose to use Schuchmann and city staff for most of the labor over the last four years, bringing in tradesmen only as needed. Doing the project this way has allowed the city to afford features that weren’t in the original bid, Schuchmann said. That includes complete interior renovations instead of just rehabbing the existing layouts, along with new HVAC systems, plumbing, electrical lines, generators, furniture, and numerous other security and structural upgrades, Schuchmann said.

All of the work so far would have cost the city over $4 million if done through a contractor, Schuchmann continued. But as of April, the city has spent less than $1.5 million.

Stracks Church interchange: City leaders are negotiating with engineering service Bartlett & West to conduct the preliminary study for a new Interstate 70 interchange at Stracks Church Road.

If they can come to an arrangement, the engineers will provide the “Access Justification Report” needed to have the federal government approve new interchange construction. Wright City sees a full interchange at Stracks Church Road as a new avenue for future growth and development. MoDOT is also on board with the project, Schuchmann said.