JASPER, Tenn. – Since seven new school resource officers will be added to the Marion County Sheriff’s Department this fall to cover every public school in the county, those officers will need vehicles, too.
The Marion County Commission approved the additional officers at an estimated cost of $346,808 in March.
At the board’s May meeting, County Mayor David Jackson said Sheriff Ronnie “Bo” Burnett met with the board’s finance committee recently to ask for permission to purchase 10 new patrol cars.
“It will be paid for in next year’s budget,” he told the board. “[We need to] get those cars here in time because we’ll be hiring seven new SROs. We need to get those cars in here, so we can start getting equipment put in.”
Officials put the purchase out for bid, but only got one response.