Residents of Kimball County may soon be seeing a new car patrolling the area.

The Kimball County Sheriff’s office is looking into purchasing a Dodge Nitro for their fleet.

Sheriff Harry Gillway brought the option to the County Commissioners at their regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 1.

Gillway produced the state approved bid sheet for the purchase and said the department would like to go with a mid-sized sport utility vehicle.

Plans to reallocate the gray Ford Explorer to the county for use by other offices have already been approved by the board.

Deputies are currently doing some of the maintenance on the sheriff’s vehicles in the county road department’s shop.

Praising the department for their efforts to stretch every tax dollar Gillway also said this would not be possible without the cooperation of other county offices.

Questioning service, commissioner Larry Engstrom mentioned that some necessary repairs would require servicing out of Kimball.

However, if the vehicle is purchased locally, Wolf Automotive would be able to transport it to their Dodge lot.

Tires are also a concern for Gillway. He stated that one of the department’s vehicles has tire problems for no known reason.

Commissioner Larry Brower suggested that the department specify a higher grade tire for the vehicle regardless of whether it is the Nitro or something else.

Gillway said the state specifications that he presented were just a starting point and that county requirements could be added to them.

In other sheriff’s department news, Gillway reported to the board that calls are up and that he has capped the amount of miles each deputy can log.

If something happens to stretch past the mileage cap Gillway has asked the deputies to justify the overage in writing.

The board heard from the county highway superintendent, Jerry Robbins as well, concerning machinery in his fleet.

The transmission repair on Kimball County’s 1987 CAT motor grader is complete, but the equipment is still a topic of discussion for the board.

The board has been considering a rebuild on that machine, and decided to do so at the meeting at an additional cost of almost $50,000.

“We could get by a lot longer and cheaper rebuilding instead of trading off,” board chairman Dave Bashaw said.

Joel Lashley, a representative of Murphy Tractor and Equipment in Gering, agreed that it was a better idea than trading the equipment in.

The project will take about six weeks, but probably less since the transmission has already been rebuilt.

The board also discussed the payment options available to them and chose to use the 24 month no-interest payoff option.

Opting to use the financing as long as possible without interest will save the Kimball County taxpayers extra cost on the planned rebuild.