This story has been updated.

Avondale Estates, GA — The Avondale Estates City Commission will meet on Wednesday, July 27, at 5:30 p.m. for a regular meeting followed by a work session. The City Commission meeting will be held via Zoom and at Avondale Estates City Hall, 21 N. Avondale Plaza.

During the regular meeting, the board will consider financing the purchase of nine police vehicles.

To join the meeting via Zoom, click here. To call in, dial +1-301-715-8592. The webinar ID is 820 4945 3404.

To view the meeting agendas, click here.

Police Chief Harry Hess presented a proposal for the purchases at the July 13 work session. The police department currently has 15 marked patrol vehicles and one unmarked vehicle. The department has a staff of 15 full-time officers and one part-time officer.

Three vehicles were decommissioned before Hess became the police chief in April.

“Since I started, I have decommissioned one additional marked patrol vehicle and the unmarked CID vehicle due to the overwhelming cost of repairs,” Hess wrote in a memo. “I have reserved one vehicle solely as a spare marked patrol vehicle. This spare vehicle is only used for emergencies if an officer’s vehicle needs repairs. This leaves only 10 marked patrol vehicles and one spare for use by the department.”

The replacement schedule for police vehicles would be driven by the model year, mileage and mechanical condition of the vehicles.

“Emergency response vehicles are expected to be in service for seven years or 100,000 miles,” Hess said. “This life span is in part due to the stop and go nature of the job and extreme use responding to emergency calls for service. Additionally, the life of the vehicle can be shortened due to lack of care or preventative maintenance being performed.”

To reduce the hours the engines are used, Hess has advised the officers to turn the vehicles off when not on calls for services and away from their vehicles. All cars would also be outfitted with in-car cameras going forward. Currently, only the marked vehicles purchased from 2019 have in-car camera systems.

Hess has requested the city purchase two 2022 Ford Edges and a 2022 Ford Ranger, which would be issued to the police chief, the CID sergeant and the deputy police chief. He has also requested the city purchase six 2022 Ford Utility Police Interceptor vehicles.

The total cost of the nine vehicles is $470,330.

Also on the regular meeting agenda, the board will consider an ordinance requiring commercial conveyor car washes to recycle water, and a resolution requesting that the U.S. Postal Service assigns the zip code 30002 to all addresses within the city.

During the work session, the city staff will update the board on ongoing capital projects including the Town Green, the U.S. 278 road diet and the North Woods project.

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