Buckeye Public Safety, Inc. may be in business to make money but the company is more concerned with helping local police departments than with its own bottom line.

The business that buys new and used police and fire equipment and resells the items locally has helped the Ironton Police Department and Coal Grove Police Department purchase eight used police cars for the bargain price of $24,000.

"The only thing they have to do is put their decal on the side and they are ready to go," said Charlie Jenkins, president and co-owner of the company. "The cars could be sold for $6,000 each. We are just doing this to help the municipalities because they can't afford new cruisers."

Two were delivered Wednesday and six more are on the way.

"This is something we've never done but I have wanted to do for a couple of years now, and that is assign a car to each officer. I think the city will definitely see a difference in the wear and tear of our vehicles," Ironton Police Chief Bill Garland said. "It stands to reason if you only drive a car eight hours a day, instead of 24 hours a day, it will last three times as long."

The vehicles came from the Orlando Police Department. All are at least 1998 models and have between 60,000 to 80,000 miles, a marked improvement over many of the IPD cars that have 100,000 to 200,000 miles on them.

The Ironton Eagles donated the $17,000 to pay for Ironton's six cruisers.

The difference between the vehicles from Orlando and the ones they bought from the Ohio State Highway Patrol is that these are nearly fully equipped and

only lack decals and radios.

"We had over 40 cars to choose from and these are the best ones that the Buckeye people and Grover (Carter) could find among them," Garland said.

"We hope, if things within the city do not improve, that we can maintain a good relationship with the Orlando Police and get cars from them in the future."

Coal Grove will receive two cruisers for $7,000.

"This is a great opportunity for the village," said Sgt. Jason Bloomfield. "I think it will save us money on maintenance and upkeep by giving us more cruisers, so we won't have to continually have the same cars on the road."