Kanawha County Sheriff Dept. to Retire 19 Vehicles

CHARLESTON, WV – The Kanawha County Sheriff's Department will retire 19 cars this year, most with more than 100,000 miles, according to the Charleston Gazette.  Only four are considered safe enough to drive on a regular basis, county officials said.

Those four vehicles will be up distributed to other county government agencies. County Manager Brent Pauley said the other cars may be auctioned off or kept for parts.

Pauley said the cars can be useful additions for smaller police departments or the parks system. Even though the vehicle have a lot of mileage, he said, small towns and parks have smaller areas to patrol and won't put as much mileage on the cars.

Most of the vehicles used by the parks department -- and other local agencies, including police and fire departments -- have been handed down from the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.

County Parks Director Jeff Hutchinson, whose parks and recreation vehicle is a 2005 Dodge Durango inherited from the sheriff's department, said there's no budget for cars. The parks department has not bought a vehicle since 2004, when parks officials bought two pickup trucks. Most park police cars and other vehicles are hand-me-downs.

County officials are expected to decide next month on what to do with the retired sheriff's department cars, according to the Gazette.