Belmont County Commissioner Jerry Echemann approves several purchases for county vehicles. (T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA)

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – The Belmont County Board of Commissioners voted Wednesday to spend more than a half-million dollars on vehicle purchases for multiple county entities.

New vehicles are on the way for the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office, Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services and the Belmont County Coroner.

Commissioners first approved the purchase of six 2026 Dodge Durangos for a total cost of $372,015 from Greve Chrysler Jeep Dodge through the State of Ohio Cooperative Purchasing Contract for the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office.

Commissioner Jerry Echemann said that three of the six vehicles purchased are replacements.

“As you can imagine, the Sheriff’s vehicles get quite a lot of mileage because they’re out there on the road all of the time,” Echemann said. “So we’re going to get the Sheriff six vehicles. That is about the average of what the Sheriff’s Office gets every year is six new vehicles. So we already provided money in his budget for him to do that.”

Next came approval for the purchase of two 2026 Honda CR-Vs from Straub Honda for $69,153 for Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services. The two vehicles will be used by Children Services and will be paid for with the department’s S17 funds. The department will also get one 2025 Accord SE for $30,541 from Lindsay Honda through the State of Ohio Cooperative Purchasing Contract for DJFS.

Echemann said that the vehicles are needed similarly to the Sheriff’s Office, DJFS are frequently traveling.

DJFS director Jeff Felton said the State of Ohio Cooperative Purchasing Contract is not always the cheapest option to go through but depending upon the price of the vehicles and how many are being purchased, it doesn’t have to go out for bid.

“We look at local dealers to see if we can get a better price. Sometimes we can, as evidenced by what you guys just passed, and then sometimes going through state purchasing is advantageous as well, but not always. So we try to get the best deal if we can shop locally,” Felton said. “That’s a benefit to the local economy, but state purchasing is sometimes an easier process to go through but not always the most economical.”

He added that, in regard to the CR-Vs, all of the department’s vehicles were purchased at one time.

“We’re trying to get in a rotation, so we’re not having to purchase all of the vehicles at one time,” Felton said. “We have had a lease purchase agreement before, I think it was about three years ago. So we’re in that cycle of needing to replace some vehicles with the models that we wanted.”

He added that he wants his department to be able to have more updated safety features.

Commissioners also approved the purchase of one 2026 F-350 4×4 DS Super Cab truck from Hill International/Tri-State Ford for $52,950 for Belmont County Coroner. That purchase is a replacement. That truck also will receive a specialized utility truck bed from ACE Equipment for $30,224.