The Panola County Board of Supervisors last week approved the financing of seven new dump trucks at a total cost of $970,384.24. Trustmark Bank won the county’s financing with a bid of 2.99 percent.

The dump trucks are 2019 Mack models with 20 cubic yard capacities.

The county bought nine dump trucks this month to replace nine purchased in 2016, but were able to pay for two of the new trucks with cash, leaving the seven to finance. The county began several years ago trading dump trucks when the standard two-year warranties expire. Supervisors say the costs of repairing trucks, especially when hydraulics are involved , is greater than keeping newer trucks with factory warranties.

The county paid about $141,000 per truck in 2016, and sold those nine trucks for $131,111 each last month.  J.M. Woods Auction Co., of Montgomery, Ala., bought the lot of nine, with local bidder Martin Bros. submitting a slightly higher bid.

With the money generated from the sale of the nine trucks, supervisors retired a note of about $450,000 owed from the original purchase, paid for two of the new dump trucks, and earmarked the rest for other county equipment.

In 2016, using the same method, supervisors paid cash for four trucks and financed five. Those trucks were financed at a rage of 1.82 percent, but interest rates nationally have increased since that time and supervisors were expecting to pay more interest this trading cycle.

Other financing proposals for the recently purchased trucks were received from First Security Bank (3.75), Bancorp (3.44), and Hancock Bank (3.39).