Dear Otus,
I came over to Little Rock from Crittenden County on Monday to visit my sister and we drove down to walk across the Big Dam Bridge. I cut through Cammack Village and there was some sort of crowd around a large military vehicle at a school. Do you know what all that was about?
-- Harry Allen, Sunset
Dear Harry,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and a further pleasure to extol the virtues of Cammack Village's brand spankin' new Navistar International MaxxPro Dash Category 1 MRAP.
That's a "Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected" armored personnel vehicle for those out of the military surplus loop.
This baby weighs in at 14 tons, is 22 feet long, 8 feet wide and 12 feet tall at the turret. Under the hood is a 330-horsepower Caterpillar C7 heavy duty diesel engine that gets about 5 miles to the gallon.
The MRAP holds a crew of three and can carry an additional four officers.
To be completely honest, the MRAP, which was christened the Anna Kathryn at the Labor Day ceremony that you witnessed, is not totally new. It saw limited duty in Afghanistan before the troop draw down and is one of the 5,200 surplus MRAPs and 2,800 smaller Mine-Resistant Utility Vehicles (MRUV) being passed along by the military to local law enforcement.
The vehicles are a steal. Costing around $500,000 (MSRP) to build, the vehicles are selling for an average of $5,000 to qualified agencies. And that's even with all rebates and incentives going back to the dealer.
The 2-year-old Air Force vehicle, having been gently used and IED attack-free, had a Kelly Blue Book fair market range of $332,273 to $335,784. Cammack Village paid $4,200.
It would have been more but the Air Force knocked off a bit for the trade-in -- the Cammack Village Police Department's 2013 diesel-powered Cushman Hauler 1600XD utility vehicle that had been used mainly for cellphone scofflaw control at Jefferson Elementary School on North McKinley Street.
That's right. You drive and use your cellphone in the school zone during school hours and the CVPD lowers the hammer (Ordinance 10-08). Protecting our children is the No. 1 priority. Owner (a Jefferson graduate) has lived within a block or two of Cammack most of his life and it has always been that way.
The Cammack MRAP was even more of a bargain because it had initially been intended for the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center in Alexander until some sort of snafu at the lockup put a temporary crunch on the cash flow.
Alexander's loss was Cammack Village's gain and the city is now the state's eighth municipality to benefit from the military surplus. Since the summer of 2013, police departments can acquire MRAP vehicles through the 1033 program, which allows the Defense Department to redistribute equipment it no longer needs to state and municipal agencies.
Other outfits receiving the vehicles include the Little Rock, Jacksonville, Benton, Hot Springs and Texarkana police departments, and Jefferson and Benton county sheriff's offices.
That means the CVPD now has everything it needs to patrol the mean streets of the town's 180 acres.
Harry, since you evidently used North McKinley to cut through Cammack (I trust you slowed way down), you know that it is the town's main street. It goes past the school, the town swimming pool and municipal complex, where it becomes Audubon Street before terminating at pristine (and pet-free) Baker Park.
Others headed to Murray Park via the back way down Overlook Drive cut through Cammack off North University. The idyllic enclave seems deceptively unprotected to high-spirited youth who would speed or commit dangerous rolling stops. It is not.
Acquiring the MRAP also helps Cammack Village keep pace with the city of Little Rock (which has two MRAPs). The state's capital city surrounds Cammack Village and its 400 or so homes and 1,000 residents.
The MRAP, which will be on display in front of City Hall, is available to be rented for parties. The vehicle doubles as a tornado shelter and it can be used as an emergency generator that could power the Sue Hall Meeting Room and town fire station.
"Our intended use of the vehicle is for critical incidents, officer and citizen rescues, prima facie pet owners in Baker Park, SWAT incidents, pet waste nonbaggers (Ordinance 01-02), homeland security, natural disaster rescues, and anyone keeping pet hippopotami (Ordinance 02-03)," said Cammack comptroller Woody Atha, who handled the transfer from the Air Force.
Until next time, Kalaka reminds you that there is nothing inherently happy about, or worth clapping along to, a room without a roof.
Disclaimer
Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat's award-winning column of humorous fabrication appears every Saturday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
HomeStyle on 09/06/2014