Since 2016, the City of Sparks has been getting free military vehicles and equipment through the Defense Reutilization Marketing Office (DRMO) program. When the military has equipment that does not work or is not needed anymore, it goes to DRMO. From there, about 8,000 jurisdictions can claim it.
"As they were drawing down out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and this equipment was coming back to the United States, and the military was figuring out what to do with it, that's when that program really kicked into high gear," Ron Korman, Public Works Manager for the City of Sparks said.
The Sparks Police Department can claim equipment that it wants. After it owns it for one year, it can transfer it to other departments in the city. SPD has received lots of heavy equipment and small vehicles over the last five years.
"I'm sure people have seen our big camouflage truck and trailer, which we use a lot of times for transporting a lot of the abandoned RVs out off the city streets and back here to our back lot," Officer Nick Chambers, Public Information Officer for the Sparks Police Department said.
SPD got a free SWAT vehicle known as an MRAP from the program in 2017. Some people question why law enforcement needs military vehicles. Chambers says it is all for safety.
"Over the years, throughout the nation, we've seen an uprise in violent crimes, things of that nature," Chambers said. "Also, everybody remembers the One October incident, which is when we purchased this vehicle. We want to be able to get our personnel into situations, safely, but also we want to be able to get out of those situations safely and help provide cover and concealment."
The city paid zero dollars for the bulletproof and heat resistant vehicle. The federal government paid a much higher price.
"It costs the taxpayers about $650,000," Chambers said. "Again, we got this vehicle for free and we've put in roughly $50,000 to meet our department needs."
This MRAP would normally cost approximately $650,000.
SPD has semi trailers, moving trailers, loaders and small off-road vehicles.
"Some of our side-by-sides that we have to help utilize, get personnel to and from our special events and things like that," Chambers said.
SPD also uses the side-by-sides to patrol the river path to check on homeless people.
The river also has cottonwood trees that need maintenance. Public works got a 135-foot manlift to do those jobs. What normally costs $180,000 was free but it required about $30,000 to refurbish.
"In the past, we'd rent and the rental on one of those would cost us about $10,000 a week," Korman said.
The Sparks Public Works Department uses its equipment in a lot of ways. It has a grader, semi-trucks and trailers. It was using one of the trucks to transport a loader, Monday.
"What we've done, historically, is we've moved our loaders around town on the road, which puts a lot of wear and tear on very expensive equipment," Korman said.
Korman says the DRMO program is saving money and time while making the roads safer for drivers.
"We're able to do our work in a more safe manner and we're able to get equipment that otherwise we might not have been able to get," Korman said.
While most of the big ticket items are vehicles, both SPD and public works have received lots of conex boxes that allow for a lot of safe storage.
"Instead of building a building for storage, we were able to put summer equipment inside the conexes during the winter and vice versa," Korman said.
The public works department also has a 500-gallon fuel tank on a trailer. That allows crews to take it to various sites to fuel up equipment like standby generators. It converted a jet fuel pump into a water pump that it can use during floods.
