Real ‘mistake’ on county vehicle shop was six years ago!

About 20 years ago, I was North Carolina public relations manager for Centel, then the state’s third largest telephone company, headquartered in Hickory. I was in charge of “company identification,” which included the company logo, vehicle colors, advertising, etc.—and I had a hand in vehicle procurement, specification of colors, application of decals and the like.

In that role, I also had an up-close-and-personal experience with the economics of a centralized vehicle maintenance shop. We had over 1,400 employees and more than 500 vehicles scattered across 43
exchanges in 21 western and Piedmont counties. For years, all vehicles came to the shop in Hickory for any significant service work except for body repair, trim work and routine oil changes and lubes.

One day, a car needed some urgent work on a radiator, and it was sent up the road to a Caldwell County radiator shop because our mechanics were busy. Management was stunned that the bill was about half what our estimated cost would have been. That led to all radiator work going out on bid to a single shop.

Eventually, brakes and other wheel issues were put out on bid, too. Then transmissions and engines. You know what eventually happened. The economics of operating our own shop continued to crumble until management decided to close it. Both mechanics were given jobs as installers in the Hickory area.

The recent brouhaha over the Caldwell County vehicle shop was not a “dumb” decision by “King Ben” Griffin, and others on the current Board of Commissioners. No, it was a “dumb” decision six years ago by the Board chaired by Faye Higgins. In 2006, she came to a Republican Men’s Club meeting touting the idea, which sounded like it was hers.

I knew then, with only 175 vehicles in all, that a Caldwell County vehicle maintenance shop had little chance to “make it” on the basis of economics. I have no issues with the three county employees who, apparently, will lose their jobs—although, as usual, Griffin probably didn’t handle things well—but, as a taxpayer, I don’t want to pay any more for vehicle maintenance than absolutely necessary.

I’m not trying to defend or attack anyone, but for once, I think “King Ben’s” group got it right. Let’s listen to everyone’s opinions, and all the rationale and logic anyone’s got. And certainly, let’s treat everyone with dignity and respect. But, in the end, let’s make government decisions on the basis of facts and reason.

What no one seems to notice is, even in closing the shop, the vehicle repair dollars will stay in the community.
If the commissioners subsequently cut three cents off the tax rate by June 30, the libertarian streak in me knows that I can spend that $50 a year better than the county can, anyway. That’s a gas-tank fill-up to me, or maybe, a nice meal out with my wife.

Dennis A. Benfield                                                                                                                                      Hudson