RICHMOND – Sales of surplus Sheriff’s Office vehicles added money to the Ray County operating fund.

Sheriff Scott Childers sold four vehicles: a bus, a former military vehicle, a Dodge Charger and an SUV.

Childers said he bought the bus earlier this year because he wanted a rack from the inside, which he removed for use in a smaller inmate transport bus.

“I needed the metal rack with the door so nobody could get to the (small bus) driver. I took it out of that (big) bus and retrofitted it,” he said.

Childers had been quoted a price of $8,000 to buy and install a new rack, but the retrofit work did the job inhouse for almost nothing, he said.

“It cost us about $30 to install. Me and my maintenance man did that,” Childers said.

The big bus sold for $7,100 and, having first given up a rack that would have cost $8,000, the county came out about $15,000 ahead, he said.

“That bus has paid us off pretty good,” Childers said.

The big question is, how much did the big bus cost the county. Earlier this …