The Lake County Sheriff’s Department will receive more than $1 million in new vehicles after Ford canceled the order last year due to supply chain issues.
Lake County commissioners on Wednesday accepted Jim Shorkey 1 White Oak LLC’s bid for 21 2023 Ford Interceptor utility vehicles at about $47,564 each for a total of about $998,803. Shorkey was the only bidder. The company, which operates an auto group in White Oak, Pennsylvania, was also the sole bidder on a 2023 Ford 350 High Roof Cargo AWD at $61,095. This purchase was also approved.
“This is catching up,” Lake County Sheriff’s Chief Vince Balbo said, adding that later those will be the only vehicles purchased this year. They expect delivery in the spring.
Deputy Commander Brian Marsh said the department had scoured the country to find the vehicles. Shorkey is a large car group with numerous locations from which they were able to pull the desired vehicles from stock.
Commissioners also approved spending $251,345 with Shorkey to outfit the 18 marked patrol vehicles. Three will be unmarked vehicles. The three unmarked vehicles will be outfitted by Federal Signal for about $27,000.
Lowell Body Shop submitted the sole bid to paint all 18 vehicles at a cost of about $6,955.
The purchase comes after officials in December canceled a 2022 order for police-issued Ford Explorers after the automaker told the department it could not make the ordered vehicles because of a microchip shortage and that he would no longer make the police versions of the vehicle. , rather than focusing on Explorers for regular commercial sales.
Balbo then successfully attempted to transfer the $200,000 that would have been spent equipping these new vehicles to purchase new next-generation police radios.
The new radios cost $12,000 each and are part of a new generation of technology that will allow police to communicate using traditional radio frequencies and Wi-Fi. The council agreed to provide about $1.1 million in discretionary funds released through revenue replacement funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to help the department get closer to the $2.1 million required for the entire purchase.
cnapoleon@chicagotribune.com
