Local Story From Huntsville

HUNTSVILLE — The City of Huntsville recently purchased two new, fuel-efficient vehicles through a Houston-Galveston Area Council Cooperative Contract including a 2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid and a 2011 Ford Escape Hybrid.

On Thursday, City of Huntsville Fleet Manager Michael Clouds received the keys for the veh...icles, which will now be utilized in part by the Huntsville Police Department.

“I am excited to add the two new hybrids to the City’s fleet,” Clouds said. “With the increasing costs of fuel, the City needs to move to a more efficient fleet. The Ford Fusion Hybrid is expected to get approximately 41 miles per gallon in city mileage and 36 mpg highway mileage ratings, and the Ford Escape Hybrid is expected to get approximately 34 mpg city/31 mpg highway.”

According to Huntsville Police Chief Kevin Lunsford, the new vehicles will be used in part by the department’s non-uniformed personnel.

“We’re taking this opportunity to go into test and evaluation mode of these vehicles,” Lunsford said. “We’ll develop a rotation for evaluation purposes through our non-uniformed people, which will include our detectives, certain administrative staff and myself. The vehicles will be evaluated in various functions in the department to see where they will be best suited.”

Lunsford said HPD is very excited about the opportunity to test the new vehicles.

“I think we, as part of the City, have a duty to be as fiscally responsible as possible, and if we can do that with more fuel-efficient vehicles in certain areas of the department, we definitely want to do that,” he said.

The vehicles, purchased for a combined total of $56,767.87, will be used and monitored during the 2010-11 fiscal year in order to determine their effect on overall City spending.

“The City fleet is reviewed on a yearly basis to determine what the current and future operational needs of the departments,” Clouds said. “The fleet composition is determined as part of that fleet review process so that the departments and the City can strategically plan using fiscal responsibility.”