Henderson quadruples budget for Harley-Davidson police motorcycle repairs
The Henderson Police Department’s budget for Harley-Davidson motorcycle repairs more than quadrupled after a City Council meeting this month.
The budget increased when council on July 11 approved an amendment to the city’s current purchase order with the Metropolitan Police Department, which repairs and maintains the city’s police motorcycles through a 2019 agreement.
The amendment raised the purchase order’s funding from $12,000 per year for motorcycle repairs to $50,000.
John Moran, Henderson’s fleet operations and maintenance manager, said the increase is a result of the city using more Harley-Davidson motorcycles than it expected when the 2019 agreement was struck.
According to Moran, Henderson planned to transition away from using Harley-Davidsons and replace them with BMW motorcycles. But the Henderson Police Department decided to switch back to Harleys in 2021.
“We didn’t make the transition that we expected to, where we’re doing less Harley-Davidson repairs with Metro and more BMW,” Moran said.
Moran said the department stayed within the $12,000 budget after that transition, until this year.
In fiscal year 2023, the department paid the Metro motorcycle shop just over $14,000, according to Henderson spokesperson Justin Emerson. He said the city plans to spend $20,000 on the repairs next year.
While Harley-Davidsons are repaired by Metro’s motorcycle repair shop, Moran said the BMW motorcycles are repaired by a local provider, EuroCycle.
Moran said EuroCycle treats motorcycles from the city the same as any other customers, which is different from the Metro shop.
“From the feedback that I get from the police department, one of the things they say is, actually, the level of services provided by the Metro shop is much better than that provided by EuroCycle, because at EuroCycle, we’re competing with the general public for services.” Moran said.
Henderson still uses BMW motorcycles in its fleet, but the majority are Harley-Davidsons.
The city currently uses 21 motorcycles: Six of them are BMWs while the other 15 are Harley-Davidson.
Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Instagram @writermark2.