The solid waste district’s fleet just got bigger by one vehicle.

At its regular Thursday meeting the Lawrence County Commission approved allowing the district to use one of the community service vans from Juvenile/Probate Judge David Payne’s office until it gets cars of its own.

That brings the number of vehicles available for the Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste Management District up to two. On Tuesday Scioto County Sheriff Marty Donini lent a used cruiser to the district.

The dearth of cars came about at the end of November after the district’s board decided to end its association with the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization.

Since the 1990s the CAO has run the solid waste district from $385,000 the district receives from the $12 a year parcel fee levied on every property owner in Lawrence and Scioto counties. The total amount from the fee is $684,000 with the balanced used by the district on its programs.

After the split the CAO said the fleet of vehicles that had been used by the solid waste district belonged to them since they were purchased as part of a contractual agreement.

Since the CAO is calling the cars unrestricted assets, it has declined to transfer the titles to the district. It also said the insurance on those vehicles would no longer cover solid waste district employees since they were no longer part of the CAO.

However, the district claims the vehicles belong to it because the most recent models were purchased from the parcel fee fund.

Right now the disputed cars are in the possession of solid waste district employees and are parked at undisclosed locations, according to solid waste district director Dan Palmer.

The district has authorized its attorney to pursue recovering the vehicles legally.

CAO director D.R. Gossett has offered a use agreement to the district, but no action has been taken on that.

In other action the commissioners:

• Approved employing part-time and full-time paramedics for the Lawrence County EMS for $11 an hour.

• Received the weekly dog warden’s report where 26 dogs were adopted or went to a rescue. Each adopted dog before being discharged into Lawrence County was registered and furnished with a valid registration tag. One dog was redeemed by its owner and four dogs were destroyed. This week there were 80 dogs in custody.