WINTON – The Hertford County Sheriff’s Office will soon have five new vehicles on patrol within the county’s borders.

Last week, the Hertford County Board of Commissioners approved the acceptance of a bid from Ilderton Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge of High Point in regards to the five vehicles. At an earlier meeting, the commissioners gave the green light to Sheriff Juan Vaughan to launch a search for the lowest bidder to fill his request for the new vehicles.

Sheriff Vaughan said at last week’s meeting the new vehicles were needed to replace cars in his department’s aging fleet. The old vehicles to be replaced each have in excess of 120,000 miles.

The combined price tag of the five new vehicles, all Dodge Chargers, is $100,280.

At the same meeting, the commissioners reviewed three bids for financing the new vehicles. The low bid – 2.88 percent annually submitted by BB&T – was accepted.

Hertford County Manager Loria Williams said the vehicles will be financed over a period of three years. Including the interest, the payments over that time period will be $35,370.26 annually. The initial payment is scheduled for April 14, 2011.

In other business, the commissioners approved a funding request from Roanoke-Chowan Community College in the amount of $65,000. The money will be used by the college to replace an aging cooling tower that provides air conditioning to the Jernigan Building and Freeman Building. The latter houses the Early College High School.

The bid for the work will be approved by the RCCC Board of Trustees.

Additionally, the commissioners approved the advertisement of the upset bid process on the Glennie Mitchell property (owned by the county through tax foreclosure).

The bidding for that property starts at $1,300. An upset bid is required to be five percent higher, plus $50, than the current bid.