By Louis Zylka
The 830 Times
City council members have approved a request to seek bids for new patrol vehicles for the Del
Rio Police Department.
The city council discussed a resolution during its regular meeting on Oct. 1 to authorize and
direct the city manager to advertise a request for bids for police patrol vehicles.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez made the motion to approve the resolution, and Councilwoman
Ernestina “Tina” Martinez gave the second.
As mentioned in a memo included in the agenda packet at the council meeting, several patrol
vehicles are near the end of their usable lives. In an attempt to obtain the best value and price,
the city of Del Rio must obtain bids for replacing three patrol vehicles.
The resolution also noted one vehicle is slated to be used by the police department’s evidence
division.
As also mentioned in the agenda packet, the intent of the request for bids is to ensure that any
vehicle purchase included in the adopted budget approved by the city council is also included in
the request for bids.
Mayor Al Arreola asked if any of the council members had any questions, and Councilwoman
Carmen Gutierrez asked if the additional vehicles mentioned in the resolution would be funded
through the city’s Operation Lone Star grant monies.
“I want the public to know if these are additional vehicles to what we are going to be getting with
Operation Lone Star,” Gutierrez said.
DRPD Capt. Rick Roman was in attendance at the meeting and answered Gutierrez’s
question by saying the vehicles mentioned in the resolution are “additional vehicles.”
Arreola then asked the council if there were more questions for Roman to answer. No other
questions were brought up, and the council moved to the next agenda topic.
