By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com


Livingston County is set to continue its carpool vehicle replacement project.

Transportation Director Greg Kellogg was before a committee of County Commissioner’s this week with the request to authorize the replacement of 15 County-owned vehicles with new vehicles leased through Enterprise Fleet Management. Kellogg said this is a significant reduction from last year when they replaced 27 vehicles.

This year’s purchases will, in part, support the Sheriff’s Office’s assigned vehicle program which came about largely from a need discovered from the pandemic. The county health department, EMS, and the building department will also have vehicles replaced this year.

Kellogg said that the leases are very flexible and not like retail leases. The county can choose any term and they landed on 60 months. Kellogg said that after the vehicles are paid off, they can keep them.

Kellogg added that this request is coming earlier in the year than last year’s order because of deadlines, especially for patrol vehicles, that they don’t want to miss. Currently, the county’s contractor for installing equipment in the 2021 vehicles is still working on that, due to delays from the pandemic.

County Administrator Nathan Burd said they are unsure if these purchases could possibly be an acceptable use of American Rescue Plan funds, and that he is looking at similar purchases made around the country to see how those play out.