In the coming weeks and months, the SUVs and squad cars that have been a staple of the Cedartown Police Department are going to go by the wayside, and a new batch of SUVs will come into the fleet.

Police Chief Jamie Newsome told commissioners his officers are going to be happy when they gave the final stamp of approval for the plan during the February City Commission meeting earlier in the month.

Yet this is all part of a much larger plan that hopes to reduce the cost of replacing vehicles on a regular basis for the city as their partnership with Enterprise (yes, the car rental company) grows deeper.

Commissioners voted unanimously for the city to purchase of 10 Police Pursuit Tahoe SUVs to replace the mix of Ford SUVs and Dodge Chargers (and a couple of older Ford-based interceptors as well,) at a cost of just over $381,000 – not including the equipment. With the Enterprise program, it’ll fold immediately be sold onward to Enterprise, who will then require monthly payments as part of a plan that will then allow those vehicles to be swapped out without having to incur additional costs of purchasing a whole new SUV.

The city does get the around $400,000 back through the purchase and swap back with Enterprise, and per City Manager Edward Guzman “we got to take advantage of good pricing on these vehicles.”

A plan was already in place to start taking advantage of police interceptors going into the program, but these came up first and instead Enterprise will take these vehicles on and allow others slated for the Cedartown Police Department to go to another city.

“It makes me happy, and the price makes me happy too,” Commission Chair Jessica Payton noted ahead of the unanimous vote.

City Commissioners voted in 2022 to begin taking part in a program with Enterprise to take on some of the cost of the vehicle fleet, and as additional vehicles are swapped out new ones from Enterprise will come into fill those voids, Guzman explained further in an interview following Monday’s meeting.

Some vehicles won’t be making it into the program, such as specialized equipment like the Public Works vacuum, or engines and pumper trucks used by the Cedartown Fire Department. Vehicles that do require regular trade outs – those used by Cedartown PD, various City Administration employees, and regular Public Works pickup trucks are good candidates for the program since it allows the city to save on the upfront costs of regular vehicle purchases.

It also helps reduce time for order fulfillment for vehicles purchased in bulk, sometimes difficult for dealerships who are bidding on municipal business to keep timetables for delivery schedules.

Those delivery schedules matter when new vehicles are needed, and time isn’t being wasted too long on the new Tahoe’s arriving. Guzman reported six are already in awaiting the equipment and labels for the Cedartown Police Department to go onto the SUVs, and four more were still awaiting delivery as late as last week (February 21.)

The city instead writes one check monthly to Enterprise and swaps the vehicles back when new ones are ready to come into the fleet.

Guzman said the only part of the process that the city still keeps in house is vehicle maintenance, since Public Works staff is already hired and on hand to complete everything from oil changes and brake jobs to serious repairs.