Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer told the Journal-News the sale of the old model isn’t quite final yet, but they have an offer of a little more than $300,000. He said the county general fund shouldn’t have to be tapped to cover the rest of the cost of the new chopper.
“At this time we’re not planning on expending any general fund money or asking for any additional appropriations from the commissioners,” Dwyer said adding they have saved up “a significant amount” of drug seizure money to help make up the difference.
The new copter is being built to specifications and it will be months before they take ownership. There is currently a pandemic-induced global shortage of new vehicles and other consumer goods, because microchip production ground to a halt in Asia at the outset of the crisis.
Dwyer said he has not been told the new helicopter will be delayed because of the issue. If there is a problem they have an older military helicopter they can use. The aircraft is most often deployed in cases of missing persons but Dwyer said they have used it in a variety of ways.
“We’ve put it up for critical search warrants where we feel we might have an evasion issue, a lot of infrastructure things if the commissioners or engineer need something flown over,” Dwyer said. “We can take people up and they can do the aerial photography. We flew it and filmed a section in West Chester once at a specific time for the traffic flow.”
When the sheriff asked the commissioners to approve selling the old helicopter last month the value was listed at $100,000 and Commissioner Don Dixon balked at the plan.
“We should consider listing this with a broker that handles aircraft,” Dixon said. “This $100,000 to me seems way under valued.”
Dwyer told the Journal-News there are various ways items can be disposed of via GovDeals and he worked with the commissioners’ office on the best route.
“I thought it brought a lot more than what most people thought it would bring,” Dixon said. “So that was good for the budget.”
Routinely the commissioners approve resolutions when various county offices, departments and independent boards want to dispose of property — even a broken desk chair. Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said it is the commissioners’ statutory duty to keep a close accounting of county assets.
“Without that type of governmental oversight things could disappear without any accounting, and without any question, and without any ability to track where in the heck property ended up going,” Gmoser said. “So it has to be accounted for or disposed of properly, so we can take it off the inventory sheets and acquisition additional property to make up for what was disposed of.”
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