Boone County officials are attributing a vehicle shortage to supply chain issues.
The Boone County Sheriff’s Office is awaiting 31 vehicles, Boone County Assistant County Administrator/County Engineer Rob Franxman said.
“Once you go to the sheriff’s department, I think we’re waiting on 16 (Chevrolet) Tahoes and 15 (Ford) Explorers,” Franxman said. “As far as county department’s itself, we’re probably short about three (vehicles) that we’ve had purchase order issued for – parks has one, solid waste has one and I believe property maintenance has one.”
The procurement of vehicles over the last several years has been nothing short of challenging, Franxman said.
“The last vehicles we ordered for public works were some F-550 dump trucks we ordered in 2021,” Franxman said. “We actually just took delivery of those in June of this year – 18 long months.”
Purchasing two 2023 Chevrolet pickup trucks and one 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV for the public works department for a total of $148,367 recently garnered Boone County Fiscal Court approval.
“By all accounts, short of verifying it ourselves and visiting their lot, they’re apparently on the lot and ready to be delivered as soon as we issue a purchase order,” Franxman said. “I think they had these parked in the back corner for a while for us.”
While acknowledging the Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV is a more upscale vehicle, its availability is the primary reason the county is attempting to claim it at this point in time, Franxman said.
“Supply chain issues, still there,” Boone County Judge/Executive Gary W. Moore said. “We pretty much have to take what we can find that fits the spec, obviously.”
