The purchase of a new vehicle for the Knox Building and Code Compliance Officer was approved at last night’s city council meeting. Compliance Officer Kenny Pfost has been utilizing his personal vehicle since the old city-issued vehicle broke down.
Clerk-Treasurer Jeff Houston mentioned that the $36,000 needed for the vehicle purchase will be split up between three separate accounts. He said that $10,000 would come out of the cumulative capital development repairs and maintenance fund, $8,600 would be from rental registration and $17,400 will be come from the edit account for the Knox Industrial Park.
Houston explained why these particular funds could be utilized for this purpose, “First of all, the rental registration $8,600 that is a very restricted fund and you can only spend it for things that have to do with rental inspections.” Houston said, “Since this is not the total amount of the vehicle, I called with State Board of Public Accounts and got their okay and they said that would be a legitimate way to spend that money.”
He added that the cumulative capital development fund is available to be used for any legitimate city purpose. He said lots of other cities and towns utilize that fund for patrol car and city vehicle purchases. The remainder of the money coming from the Industrial Park edit account is permitted because Houston included an appropriation as a line item in this year’s budget and it has yet to be utilized.
Houston said that they shopped around and received bids from Cambe Chevrolet in Knox, Best Chevy in Bremen and Kelly Chevrolet in Fort Wayne.
Pfost specified that Kelly Chevrolet’s bid of $36,000 was the lowest bid by approximately $1,200 to $1,400. Mayor Dennis Estok added that they also went with that option because it was in stock. If they chose any of the other places it would have been an 8 to 10 week wait for the desired truck. With this option, Pfost said he will be able to go and pick up the new vehicle as soon as today.
The new vehicle is a white 2017 Chevy Tahoe. Council President Don Kring suggested the possibility of adding some Knox Building and Code Compliance decals to the truck when it is acquired.
