LAUREL, MS - The City of Laurel will be parking 22 city-issued vehicles beginning Dec. 24 in an ongoing effort to cut expenses, reported Laurel Leader-Call.

Chief Administrative Officer Dennis Keveryn said a minimum number of employees will be allowed to take vehicles home after the Dec. 24th date. The on-call employee for the water/sewer department operated by United Water will be allowed to take the department's on-call vehicle home, so calls can continue to be answered.

"A number of cars in the police department are being parked," Keveryn said. "The police chief, the two deputy chiefs, and the K-9 officers will be allowed to take vehicles home."

"Whenever there is an emergency, the chief or one of the deputy chiefs usually responds," the administrator explained. "We also have police detectives, narcotic agents and police officers on the job 24 hours a day. So, they will be available for calls."

Meanwhile, those employees who are not on-call will not be allowed to take city-issued vehicles home.
"The other vehicles that are usually take-home vehicles, will be parked," he said. "If there is a call that other employees need to go on, they can come to the station and respond from there."

Keveryn said the fire chief, the recreation director, the public works director, the deputy public works director and the one on-call person for the public works department will be allowed to continue to take home cars.

"When it's all finished, we will be parking 22 city vehicles," he explained. "Since all employees are not required to live in the City of Laurel, the cost of gasoline can be expensive."

Keveryn said the decision to wait until Dec. 24th to begin the process was to allow employees time to plan for the change in transportation, reported the Leader-Call.