Fuel prices put drain on funds but not duties

By MARY ANN GREIER, Salem News staff writer
By MARY ANN GREIER

Salem News staff writer

LISBON — The price of fuel won’t keep deputies from their duties, but new gas-saving measures may slow the ever-increasing leak of funds from their transportation budget.

“We just put some restrictions on car usage,” Chief Deputy Allen Haueter of the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office said recently.

A memo to deputies dated April 30 listed measures implemented in an attempt to conserve fuel “due to the increase and anticipated further increase in fuel prices...”

Some of the measures included shutting off the engine when parked on a complaint, shutting the engine off and staying stationary at least 15 minutes per hour while on patrol if nothing is happening, checking the price at the pump on stations used by the Sheriff’s Office and keeping the travel on midnight shift to 100 miles or less if possible.

According to Haueter, deputies have always been conservative in gas usage by making sure they coordinate their travel, such as picking up lunch on the way back from a call or making sure they attempt to serve all the court papers in one community before moving to another community in a shift.

Being smarter about travel has become a financial requirement for many county government operations due to the high cost of gasoline and diesel. Just this week, the price of a gallon of regular unleaded jumped from $3.53 to $3.79 in one day.

“We’re continually keeping an eye on it...it’s going to eat everybody’s budget,” Haueter said.

Administrative Secretary Amie Hartman of the Sheriff’s Office said the credit card bills for gasoline for the first three months of last year totaled $15,980. For the first three months of this year, January, February and March, the bills totaled $22,038. Each month this year the cost has steadily increased, with $6,258 in January, $7,709 in February and $8,071 in March. She hadn’t received the bills for April.

According to Hartman, the total cost for the gas credit cards last year was $45,395. This year’s running tab has nearly reached the halfway mark for last year’s spending. If the cost continues to rise each month, the bills could exceed the budgeted amount of $82,000.

The sheriff’s fleet includes 24 vehicles, with at least two or three deputy cars on the road per shift and at least four during the daylight hours during the week to service the courts, not counting detectives, Haueter, the civil division deputies or Sheriff David Smith. Besides transporting prisoners back and forth from the jail to court, they also must be taken sometimes to hospitals, mental health facilities and one or two times per week to prison. If a Columbiana County warrant is served out of state, two deputies have to travel to pick up the prisoner, sometimes by car and sometimes by airplane.

Most of the newer vehicles in the fleet can use flexfuel or ethanol, but Haueter said they haven’t been able to find any stations in the area which offer the new fuel.

Hartman noted the bills for trips weren’t included in the gas credit card totals and included gasoline, airfare, and hotel and meals for overnight trips. Last year the department spent $7,414 for trips. The total so far this year was $1,044.

For Columbiana County Engineer Bert Dawson, the high gas prices affect his operation from both ends of the pump — as income from the gas tax and as a cost for the vehicles in his fleet, many which take diesel.

“We’ve been watching real closely,” he said.

As motorists start conserving their gas usage, Dawson said the income from the gas tax could start to come down. In January, February, March and April of this year, he said his office received $796,000, which is comparable to the same months last year. He noted, though, that the amount has decreased each month, with $204,000 in January, $202,000 in February, $199,000 in March and $191,000 in April.

As for gasoline and diesel, he said the office spent $194,516 in 2007. In the first four months of this year, the cost totaled $78,814. According to a U.S. gasoline and diesel fuel update chart on the Energy Information Administration Web site, the price of diesel rose from $2.79 per gallon a year ago to $4.14 a gallon as of May 5.

“We’ll feel the effect more in asphalt than we will in gasoline,” Dawson said.

The price of asphalt, which the department uses on area roads for the chip & seal program, has increased from 67 cents per gallon four years ago to $1.37 per gallon this year. The increase has caused a decrease in the number of miles resurfaced, with Assistant Engineer Bob Durbin noting a 20-mile drop in chip & seal. He said they’ll spend about the same amount of money for the program, they just won’t cover as much road.

County Auditor Nancy Gause Milliken and county Department of Job and Family Services Director Eileen Dray-Bardon said they’ve also noticed a difference in costs due to the gas prices. They’re also using the policy of grouping trips when possible to conserve.

“We try to do it by area so we’re not driving back and forth,” Milliken said.

Milliken has two employees who work in the field every day throughout the county, with one checking weights and measures and one reviewing properties. Dray-Bardon said the majority of travel costs for her department come through Children Services. Due to the nature of the work, her employees are required by law to make home visits, either with a staff car or their own vehicles. The DJFS fleet includes three cars and two vans which are used to transport children.

In March 2007, DJFS spent $615 for gas for the staff vehicles. In March 2008, the total was $884. Mileage reimbursement also increased, with the bill in March 2007 at $3,499 and the bill in March 2008 at $4,535.

“The travel is definitely an increased burden,” Dray-Bardon said.

For more information on gas and diesel fuel prices, check the Energy Information Administration site at http://tonto.eia.doe.gov.

Mary Ann Greier can be reached at mgreier<\@>salemnews.net