Cut rate trade on a kinda new pickup best deal in sight

I was a freshman Representative – one of the first Republicans in the Legislature since reconstruction. I picked up the phone and called Bobby Bullock – he was the Comptroller then – and asked him which of the state's department heads hurried to spend up all their budget money before the next year came.

He said, “Well, you know, that question will be easy to answer. They all do it...” - M.A. Taylor, long-time McLennan County Republican Chairman and State Legislator

Six Shooter Junction – Be it remembered:

It's been a dry year. Gravel on rural roads hasn't gone down the creek as much as usual. Cattle prices are up, but so are the prices of gas, groceries and gumption.

So, it's time to trade pickups, as they say around the ranch.

So saith Precinct 4 County Commissioner Ben Perry, County Budget Officer Adam Harry and County Auditor Stan Chambers.

Last Tuesday they requested – and got - a decrease in the budget for Grade 5 gravel - $11,000; asphalt – 2,000; tires, tubes, and batteries – 2,000; “other purchased services” - $1,000; and “engineering” - $4,000.

The total: $20,000

They requested a budget increase of exactly $20,000 to the fund for “M&E Pickups.”

The new total in that fund: $47,000

That item sailed on through the swinging doors, and then the matter of the used Chevy Silverado pickup – the 2009 half-ton model with 40,000 miles on it – came on for discussion.

Allen Samuels Chevrolet Mercedes had it for sale out on Auto Row, and it was a total diamond. A bird's nest sitting on the ground, as they say in the show room, priced at $22,995.00, to be exact.

They traded the 2008 Dodge Ram 2500 – the one with 100,390 miles on it and a “N.A.D.A.” blue book “rough” trade-in value of about $13,000 – for $4,000, paid the difference of $19,435.78, tax, title, license and drive-out, as they say in the high volume radio ads – and drove out into the sunset, their fever broken, the hoss trade a done deal.

Commissioner Joe Mashek, whose bailiwick is West, asked if that Dodge wasn't kinda new to be the subject of a trade. That was the only comment made.

Back to bidness.

The Commissioners' Court declared the Dodge pickup surplus property.
No bids were required under state law.

Since the transaction is less than $50,000, no bids are required to acquire the kinda new used Chevy pickup, which is new to its new owner, McLennan County.

So ordered by Judge Jim Lewis.

Horse trading must be in the best interest of the local government, and the legislative body such as the Commissioners' Court - or city council - need only consider which course of action is the best – if not necessarily the lowest in cost.

Asked for her opinion on the matter, a typical rural house wife from the Precinct 4 area of McLennan County, where the gravel and asphalt is holding up okay in the dry heat of a scorching summer, said that, yes, she would be mad at her husband if he came home driving a used pickup he paid that much to get and had traded one still running for less than 40% of its blue book value.

“Do not bring it on the place,” she said, in requesting anonymity.

So it goes, hunkered down here on the prairie, where never is heard a discouraging word, etc.

The VIN number on the kinda new 2009 Chevy truck was redacted "for reasons of privacy" by a member of Commissioner Perry's staff following a Public Information Act request. When we appealed the decision, we received the information and learned all about the trim package on the vehicle.

The official GM nomenclature on the model is this: 2009 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 4WD Crew Cab 143.5" LTZ Crew Cab Pickup.

That's Detroitese for how you call in Een-glaze, Cowboy Cadillac!