Slidell Police Chief Randy Smith says he still can't believe how lucky he is. What began as an informal inquiry into the price of an armored vehicle turned into a donation from one of the city's most valued corporations. The Slidell City Council on Tuesday night unanimously adopted a resolution thanking Slidell-based Textron Marine and Land Systems for its...
Slidell Police Chief Randy Smith says he still can't believe how lucky he is. What began as an informal inquiry into the price of an armored vehicle turned into a donation from one of the city's most valued corporations.
The Slidell City Council on Tuesday night unanimously adopted a resolution thanking Slidell-based Textron Marine and Land Systems for its donation of a Tiger light armored vehicle, which the company produces in partnership with MDT Armor Corp. of Auburn, Ala. The gift to the city's Police Department is valued at more than $220,000.
Tiger light armored vehicle The 19,500-pound vehicle is built on a Dodge Ram 5500 platform, features a Cummins 350-HP diesel engine and can seat up to nine people, protected by bulletproof armoring.
Smith said it will be used in the Police Department's SWAT operations, replacing the Vietnam-era armored vehicle the team currently uses.
"This is Christmas in July for me,'' Smith said, beaming like, well, a kid at Christmas.
Smith said he visited with Tom Walmsley, Textron's senior vice president and general manager, a year ago to price the armored vehicle. He said the sticker price was too high for his cash-strapped department, but the two continued talking for several months, trying to work the price down.
"Tom said, 'I got you a price -- how about free?''' Smith said. "I said, 'Yeah, right.'''
Slidell Police Chief Randy Smith, center, addresses the City Council with Mayor Freddy Drennan, left, and Textron Marine and Land Systems vice president and general manager Tom Walmsley, right. Textron donated a Tiger light armored vehicle to the Police Department. But Walmsley was serious. And last week, Smith said the Police Department took delivery of the donated vehicle, which had been used in the filming of the movie, "GI Joe.'' Smith said his officers are being trained to use the vehicle and he plans to hold a news conference in the coming weeks to unveil it.
Asked if he has driven it yet, another wide smile crossed his face.
"It's great,'' Smith said.
Walmsley said after talking with Smith, he began to work on the donation. He said there's great PR value in such a donation: It shows the city the company's appreciation and helps showcase a product that the company makes in Slidell.
The city in December agreed to cut its rent to keep Textron, a manufacturer of combat vehicle and marine craft, as a tenant in the city-owned former Defense Information Systems Agency building on Gause Boulevard. The city reduced Textron's rent from $2 million to around $1.1 million annually. Textron moved into the space in 2007, but told the city last year it was thinking about not renewing the lease, possibly moving its headquarters somewhere else.
Not wanting to lose such a valuable tenant -- both in terms of its budget and the blow of losing a large employer -- the city negotiated the new lease and kept the company for at least another year. The one-year lease expires next May and includes two, one-year extensions.
"The city worked with us so well,'' Walmsley said.
Textron occupies most of the 100,000-square-foot, city-owned building at Gause and Robert boulevards, which was built by NASA in the 1960s.
As for the donated armored vehicle, Walmsley said he "hopes it never gets used.''
Smith plans to make it a visible addition to his force. But he, too, hopes its use is confined to demonstrations and SWAT training shows: "We're going to use this a lot,'' Smith said.