Muskingum Co. Sheriff’s Office receives new vehicles

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- The Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office received five new cars this year.

The funding for the vehicle program comes through the Muskingum County Clerk of Courts with the help of the county commissioners. It is through a lease to own program with Ford that ensures they have the safest, most reliable vehicles for their job.

“So it’s really important for us to have safe vehicles, when you’re putting our guys in the seat and you’re asking them to sometimes have to run emergency status, have to drive fast to get to different places to help our citizens, to help back up other officers to handle emergencies, the last thing you want on their mind is whether the car they’re in is going to get them there safely,” said Sheriff Matt Lutz.

They have a budget of about $140,00 to 145,000 yearly budget for the five new cars.

Lutz said each car has about a six year road life with all the usage they get. They recently started a new initiative introducing propane capability for the vehicles to create a more economic option.

“So we’re working with The Energy Cooperative to spend less money on fuel. It’s also safer and cleaner for our community and not to mention its a lot cleaner for the engines,” said Lutz. “We’re hoping the engines will last even longer so when we get done with the six year life span of that car on the road, it can be used for a school resource officer or detectives’ car which will save us money for the county then too.”

The propane costs half of what gasoline does and gets almost the same miles per gallon with no difference in performance.

Sheriff Lutz said these vehicles are basically the deputies office on wheels; a critical part of the whole operation.