In most cases, used city vehicles in Lemont meet their fate at a state auction.

But a request to donate a few old cars will instead put them in the hands of officials from the Markham Park District Police Department. Markham is located south of Chicago.

Lemont Mayor Brian Reaves asked Village Board members at the June 15 Committee of the Whole meeting if they would be open to donating the cars to Markham. Trustees were more than happy to oblige.

“If we took them to the auction, we would maybe get a few hundred bucks,” Reaves told the trustees. “This is a much better use.”

The Markham Park District Police Department currently operates 13 parks with only two employee vehicles.

“And they’re in bad shape,” said Predrag Jones, executive director of the Markham Park District. “We’ve basically got two broken down vehicles.”

Markham officials appreciate Lemont’s offer, Jones said. He said about a year ago they reached out to the village of Orland Park for vehicle donations.

“We were in line to receive some but with the recession, Orland Park decided to hold onto those vehicles for another year,” Jones said.

Since then, Markham officials have been reaching out to as many suburbs as they can for donations.

Lemont officials will look through the inventory of cars they were going to send to the auction and notify Markham officials what’s available in the next view weeks, Reaves said.

This is the first time Lemont has donated the cars to another entity, according to the village.