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Local agencies’ fuel budgets take hit

By MONROE ROARK
mroark@TheCitizenNews.com

Higher fuel prices are hitting Fayette County residents in places they may not even have thought of.

Motorists may be spending $5 or so more today than this time last year to fill up their personal vehicles, but local government agencies operating large fleets of vehicles are seeing costs jump thousands of dollars each month, and they don’t pay as much per gallon as the average person on the street.

The Fayette County Board of Education buys more fuel than any other government entity in the county, with 250 school buses operating during the 2004-05 academic year.

According to George Davis, fleet supervisor in the Transportation Department, the school system purchases approximately 37 loads of diesel fuel each year, which adds up to about 277,500 gallons. Some fuel is purchased from Peachtree City Public Works, as about 25 buses refuel there, Davis said.

In about seven months, the cost of that fuel has risen 24 percent. Davis listed the base price for Aug. 20 of last year at $1.32 per gallon. That same fuel last month cost $1.64.

Based on those figures, 37 loads of diesel fuel would have cost $366,300 last summer and would now cost $455,100. That’s an $88,800 difference.

The Fayette County Public Works Department is responsible for fueling 172 on-road vehicles, 91 pieces of off-road equipment and 20 stationary backup generators, according to fleet manager Bill Lackey. The fuel costs for that equipment has jumped 35 percent in one year.

The county uses unleaded gasoline, diesel fuel and propane in various amounts. Diesel fuel rose 49 percent from March 2004 to March 2005, from $1.10 to $1.64 per gallon. During the same time period, unleaded gasoline went up 23 percent ($1.34 to $1.65) and propane rose 18.5 percent ($1.06 to $1.26).

Those figures alone are significant, but when multiplied over the thousands of gallons the county must use each month, the cost goes from $20,888.73 for March 2004 to $28,224.25 last month. Based on those numbers, the county could see a rise of nearly $90,000 in fuel costs in a single year.

Figures released by Public Works do not include the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department, which has its own fueling station.

Peachtree City maintains 133 cars and trucks, 144 including fire/ambulance vehicles, city spokesperson Betsy Tyler said. Seven of those are compressed natural gas (CNG) cars.

For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the city spent $138,653 on fuel, Tyler said. A total of $146,167 was budgeted for the current fiscal year, but at the halfway point (as of March 30), the city had spent about 60 percent of that due to rising prices. If that trend continues, the city will spend 27 percent more this year on fuel than last year.

The city has contingency funds in place for these kinds of problems, Tyler said, and city officials are working to keep the fleet size where it is. There were few new positions created on the city payroll last year, and even fewer that require additional vehicles, she said.

Fayetteville budgeted $93,748 to fuel its 108 vehicles for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. As of March 30, with 75 percent of the year complete, the city spent nearly 87 percent of that, or $81,144.75, according to finance director Lynn Robinson.

The estimated fuel expenditures for this fiscal year now total $121,717.13, which is a 30 percent jump over what was originally budgeted. The city now gives a figure of $133,996.05 as an estimate for the FY2006 budget, which would be another 10 percent increase.