BISBEE — The county Board of Supervisors do their best to buy local, but for vehicles none of the local dealers can match the price of larger Arizona cities.

A case in point was the approval of a $158,362 bid award for five Tahoe police special SUV’s to Courtesy Chevrolet in Phoenix.

Dave Seward, director of procurement, told Supervisors Pat Call, Ann English and Richard Searle that local dealers can’t make the big discounts like the bigger cities.

Though one bid from Southern Arizona Automotive in Douglas was submitted, the cost per vehicle was $28,913 which is $4,500 more per car than Courtesy Chevrolet.

On another bid award, the San Pedro Valley News-Sun was awarded the bid for all the county advertising for the 2009-2010  fiscal year in the amount of $29,267.

Though Call pointed out the difference in circulation of the Herald/Review compared to the other two weekly newspapers, he could not sway the deciding vote of English.

Searle, who called the agenda item “an annual sport” has been pushing advertising with the Benson paper since coming into office.

He said he was not sure anyone cared to read the legal advertising in the newspapers                and that he thought the whole issue of posting legal notices in the newspapers should be dropped.

Call pointed out that the county was required by law to post county business.

“We have an obligation to get as much information to as many residents as we can. Per reader the Sierra Vista Herald costs less and reaches more people,” added Call.

The circulation of the daily Herald/Review is 8,100 per day, while the weekly Benson and Willcox papers have a circulation of 1,200 each.

A $199,000 contract was awarded to Diamond Pharmacy Services to provide medications for prisoners in the county jail and in juvenile detention.

Southeastern Arizona Behavioral Health Services had been covering medication costs of clients of the clinic who landed in jail, but that will cease.

In other business:

• Approved the sale of a number of county parcels to bidders that totaled $67,225.  The county has pulled in $314,092 in the past year from land auctions.

• Awarded a $980,000 bid for asphalt and emulsions provided by Ergon Asphalt Products in Chandler and Western Emulsions in Tucson.

• Awarded a bid to A.G.E. Contracting Inc. and Maddux and Sons Inc. for crushed aggregate which totaled $300,000.