Many vehicles owned by Pulaski County had insurance coverage modified Thursday during the Pulaski County Commission meeting.
These cuts should mean savings for the county, County Clerk Diana Linnenbringer said.
“I don’t expect any increases in insurance this year,” Ken Bassett, insurance broker and owner of Bassett Insurance assured the commission. Despite this, many of the insurance coverages for county property were lowered by the commission.
According to Bassett, the last automobile accident that occurred with a county-owned vehicle occurred in 2006. Thus, the commission decided to lower its insurance coverage on many of its older vehicles.
Many of the sheriff’s patrol cars were insured for $11,000 to over $12,000, but it was thought this coverage was too high for the vehicles.
“You can buy those for a dime a dozen,” Rick Zweerink, associate commissioner, said of the Crown Victorias, some of which were 2002 and 2003 models and were speculated by the commission to have hundreds of thousands of miles of usage.
The Web site automotive.com listed used ’02 and ’03 Crown Victoria model sedans ranging in price from $3,000 to $10,000.
The commission had many of the sheriff’s vehicles reduced from full coverage to liability coverage.
A few of the sheriff’s vehicles such as the department’s 2003 Dodge Durango and its 2005 Ford Freestar remained at full coverage.
The commission also lowered its insurance on their Caterpillar graders. Many of these saw $20,000 to $26,000 reductions.
Many other vehicles, such as the county’s dump trucks and pickup trucks used for the Road and Bridge Department, were reduced in coverage as well.
These reductions were an attempt to follow the vehicle’s depreciation value, so that the county would not be paying for more coverage than necessary, Zweerink pointed out in the meeting.
However, a few of the vehicles were kept at full coverage. The assessor’s 2003 Grand Jeep Cherokee was one of the few kept at full coverage.
Bassett is to take the items discussed to have insurance companies bid on the needs of the county.
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