Wilson County animal control approves truck replacement after amending funding source

Wilson County Animal Control members approved changing the funding source for a requested vehicle purchase after hearing from Director Gatlin about the poor condition of two field trucks.

Gatlin said the department has a 2012 F-250 with a Schwab bed and a 2014 truck with about 190,190 miles. He described the 2012 vehicle as in "bad shape" and said the 2014 truck’s bed is out of production and lacks available parts. Gatlin proposed using the department’s animal-control-only account to buy a replacement and transfer the existing Schwab bed; he requested $50,000 based on a state bid price of about $45,000 plus roughly $5,000 to transfer the bed.

"I put in 50,000," Gatlin said, describing the need to move early in the procurement queue to avoid long delays. The director also described modest repair costs still required for current vehicles, including about $1,500 to address an aging wiring harness.

Chair challenged using the department’s restricted fund and moved to amend the motion so the purchase would be paid from county capital-projects funds instead. Chair noted the county’s capital projects balance of $10,865,411.82 and argued the truck should not be funded from the shelter’s restricted account, which is typically used for routine shelter incidentals and supplies. Gatlin accepted the amendment.

After a voice vote on the amendment, members voted "Aye" and the motion passed (no roll-call tally recorded). Gatlin said the department plans to surplus both older trucks once the new vehicle and bed transfer are completed.