The city of Manhattan Beach is donating five decommissioned MBPD vehicles to the city of Pickens, Mississippi. A donation ceremony will be held at 11:00 a.m. outside the Manhattan Beach Police Department on Wednesday.

The unusual donation came about when Manhattan Beach Mayor Richard Montgomery met Pickens Mayor Paulette Moore at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in January.

Moore told Montgomery that Pickens' police department had only one car for six officers. The state of Mississippi does not provide funds for police vehicles for the city, unlike California, which provides funds for the city of Manhattan Beach to purchase police vehicles, Montgomery said.

"Once I heard her story and understood her city’s need, our City Council supported my motion to donate five of our high-mileage Chevy Tahoes to the Pickens Mississippi Police Department," Montgomery told MB News. 

As it turned out, in January, the city of Manhattan Beach had just voted to purchase five new Chevy Tahoe SUVs to replace its high-mileage vehicles.

"The timing was perfect," said Montgomery. "This is 'mayors helping mayors' and 'cities helping cities,'" he added.

Meanwhile, when Chevron learned of Manhattan Beach's plan to donate the vehicles, the company volunteered to pay for the transport truck to deliver the vehicles over the 1,900 mile journey.

The donation ceremony will be held in the Upper Civic Center Parking Lot outside the Manhattan Beach Police Department on Wednesday, June 21, at 11:00 a.m.