The Board of Parks and Recreation voted on Tuesday to purchase 50 electric golf carts to replace the gas-powered carts at Grandview Golf Club.

The city of Anderson will purchase the carts from Professional Golfcar Corporation, based out of Bloomington, for $145,000.

Tod Windlan, the club professional, submitted the request to the board.

The nonreverting fund is used to support most of the Parks and Recreation Department’s recreation programs. The city controller estimated that the course would take in $405,000 for the nonreverting fund in 2008. Grandview Golf Course brought an estimated $152,000 in the last six months of 2007, according to the 2008 budget.

By using electric carts instead of gas-powered ones, the Parks Department will have a long-run savings of $30,000 to $40,000, Parks and Recreation Superintendent Fred Reese Jr. said, referring to savings from paying for gas and some maintenance.

The new golf carts have automatic brakes that set when the vehicle is on a steep hill.

“A lot of carts (currently) go in the water, hit trees,” business administrator Pam Clendenen said at the Parks Board meeting. “This will prevent that.”

The city paid more than $145,000 when it bought the current carts, Clendenen said. The money used will come from the nonreverting fund, so no taxpayer money will be used.

“The money made from them will pay for them,” Clendenen said.

The city did not go through a bidding process for the purchase because of the immediate savings it could receive through purchasing from Professional Golfcar. According to Indiana Code, a purchasing agent, such as Parks and Recreation, can bypass the bidding process when a “unique opportunity to obtain supplies or services at a substantial savings to the governmental body” exists.

In this case, Star Financial Bank agreed to give the city a low interest rate on a loan to purchase the vehicles at 4.4 percent. However, the opportunity for the low rate would expire if the city went through the bidding process because of the time it takes to do so.