As expected, the Hutchinson City Council Tuesday approved the purchase of 13-Chevy Tahoes for the Hutchinson Police Department at a cost of 27-thousand, 644-dollars per vehicle.

The police department is currently driving 2009 Crown Victoria’s, which has been favored by law enforcement for its proven dependability and functionality, but Ford is no longer offering those vehicles in 2013.

After an extensive review of other potential vehicles, they decided on the purchase of 13 Tahoes because of there need for space in police vehicles. They need to be able to fit all the equipment used by police, so they are arms length of the officers.

They also looked at fuel consumption and discovered that the Tahoe’s actually get better gas mileage then the Crown Vic’s. They get 14-miles-per-gallon in the city, compared with 15-miles-per-gallon for the Tahoes.

The council excepted the bid from Midway Motors even though they were slightly higher then a bid submitted by Don Hattan Chevrolet in Wichita. The difference was just over 400-dollars more per-vehicle. The total cost for the city for all 13-vehicles is 359-thousand, 377-dollars. They couldn’t justify excepting a bid from an out of city dealer over 400-dollars per vehicle.

The council also approved the rezoning of city owned land at 3201 East 4th from a I-3 Heavy Industrial District to a P/I Public and Industrial District.

This will allow for the building of a Fire Science training facility for use by Hutchinson Community College. The college and the city have already entered into a lease agreement over the property for that purpose.

As we told you earlier, the proposed training facility would house classrooms, offices and meeting space for the program and 75-parking spaces. It would be similar to the existing Hutchinson Fire Department Command and Training facility at the same location.

Both entities would use training equipment and props for various fire and rescue practices on the property.