In an effort to increase the reliabilityof its fleet of patrol cars, Departmentof Public Safety officialsreplaced two of its cars in July after years of use.

In accordance with state contractsand guidelines, the new cars,two Dodge 2012 Chargers, werepurchased from Aiken Ford for$22,117 each, said Deborah Kilpatrick,the office manager of thePhysical Plant and fleet manager ofall the vehicles that all Augusta StateUniversity departments use.

Jasper Cooke, director of PublicSafety, said the old cars, a 1999Ford Crown Victoria and a 2006Chevrolet Impala, were in dire need of replacing. The CrownVictoria had more than 198,000 miles on it, and the Impala hadcost the college a lot of money in repairs and maintenance, evenneeding to have its transmission replaced. The department thendecided to “cut its losses” and replace the cars instead of payingfor their upkeep.

But Kilpatrick explained that replacing the vehicles is not asimple action.

“It is a detailed process,” she said. “It’s not simply like,‘We want a new vehicle. We got a 2007; we’re tired of drivinga 2007.’”

First, she said Public Safety had to receive a justification forreplacing the vehicles from the fleet’s lead mechanic, taking intoaccount the car’s age, mileage and the repairs it might need aswell as the repairs to it that have already been done. After beingdetermined justified, Public Safety was responsible for securingthe funds to pay for the vehicles.

Therese Rosier, vice president for business services, saidfunding came from lapsed institutional funds.

“At year(’s) end we usually go ahead and look at what happenedduring the year,” she said. “Let’s say we fronted a professorfor the whole year and they decided not to teach in the summeror something. Those funds that were budgeted for them becomelapsed because they don’t go to somebody’s salary. Over the year,all those funds accumulate and people submit their needs… Wejust use the money for that.”

Rosier said she, along with other departments’ vice presidents,will compile a list of each department’s needs and, lookingat the whole campus, determine what is the highest priority. Theydecided that replacing the cars for Public Safety was one of themore important needs on the list for the year.

“When you have vehicles that putter around campus – thestop-and-go on campus, slow moving traffic – it takes its toll on the vehicles,” Kilpatricksaid. “And Public Safety,their vehicles are on the road24/7 because when one shiftleaves, the next shift picksup and takes on the samevehicle.”

Once Public Safetysecured the funds, she saidthe request was sent to theDepartment of AdministrativeServices (DOAS),which looked at the requestand where the funding wascoming from to pay for thevehicles. After DOAS approvedthe purchase, PublicSafety then had to fill out apurchasing order and send itto Kilpatrick. Next, she sentthe purchasing order to the DOAS, which stamped it “approved”and sent it back to her in order to send the purchasing order to thedealer buying the cars on July 5.

After receiving the new cars, Kilpatrick said the old vehicleswere sent to Atlanta Metropolitan College for free as an inventorytransfer after the DOAS determined the two cars were still useablefor the much smaller campus.

Cooke described the new Dodges as the “standard policepackage,” designed to take a lot of abuse and a great addition tothe Public Safety fleet.

With all the stuff that we’ve got going on with (University)Village, (Christenberry) Fieldhouse and everywhere else, we’rejust making sure our vehicles as mechanically sound as we can,”he said. “I would hate to be in a car responding to an emergencycall and knowing the car could fall apart at any time. We’ve beenfortunate…. to replace some of the old cars so we have a morereliable fleet.”