Rising
fuel prices force cities and towns to get creative
By Matt Lail
On “numerous” occasions in recent months, Conover City Manager Donald Duncan's phone has rung with a citizen on the other end, obviously concerned about some wasteful act he or she had just witnessed. “ ‘I was just at the bank,'” Duncan imitates, “ ‘and a police officer was next door at the gas station getting some coffee when I went in. I was in the bank for about five minutes, walked over to the gas station and got some coffee myself, and noticed the police car was [still] running.”
In short, the rising cost of fuel has people paying close attention to fuel usage – to the point where citizens want to make sure their tax dollars aren't being unnecessarily spent.
Duncan, like many city officials, understands the frustration.
“These [examples] have been helpful, because it allows us to use real-world examples when correcting employees.”
Local governments are more than cognizant of the almost-daily rising cost of fuel. A recent survey of more than 470 cities and counties across the nation by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) shows that one-third of local governments have experienced an 11-15 percent increase in transportation fuel costs, and 29 percent report cost increases between 16-20 percent since January.
“We're concerned like everybody else,” said Benson Town Manager Keith Langdon. “We're trying to get our employees to be more conscious about gas prices and how it affects everything.”
Cities,
towns, villages and counties, like other businesses, have to study the subject
of fuel costs from a couple of angles. First, there is the subject of the
bottom line; how the costs affect daily operations costs. But secondly, local
governments must attempt to keep the interests of their employees in mind
as well, encouraging carpooling and flex schedules to help employees save
money. 
Sometimes those two can go hand-in-hand.
Langdon stated that his town's officials have talked about offering a flex schedule to employees, and encouraging carpooling. And according to the Hendersonville Times-News , Henderson County Manager Steve Wyatt proposed a four-day work week for county employees to save money on energy costs and other expenses.
"This
budget also suggests that all employees that are non-emergency or public safety
be put on a four-day work week to reduce building energy costs and fuel consumption
for employees and the county fleet," Wyatt told the paper.
As this is budget season, the impact of rising fuel costs on local government
bottom lines is significant. The ICMA survey showed that 30 percent of local
governments are purchasing alternative fuel vehicles, 34 percent are replacing
vehicles with poor fuel efficiency, 8 percent are reducing the frequency of
some services, such as trash collection, while 4 percent are increasing fees
for local government-run buses and other transportation services, such as
senior citizen shuttles. And others have implemented idling policies.
“These,” Conover's Duncan reiterates, “have been strictly enforced by our citizenry.”
The town of Cary, according to media reports, expects to pay about 30 percent more for gas next year. Raleigh expects to pay 44 percent more, or roughly $1.7 million – the equivalent of 60-70 more employees.
Conover is budgeting 20 percent above last year's budget for 2008-09.
“Our total average annual consumption is down 12,235 gallons combined since 2005-2006,” said Duncan. (see chart). “And, yes, we believe we have bought all we plan to buy for this year.
“Many have said the prices [of gas] will go down at the end of the summer. I am not so sure. I feel we may have reached the point where supply cannot meet demand.”
Concord has managed to basically keep the amount of fuel usage level over the past six years, even though the city's fleet has grown 17 percent and the miles traveled have increased 19 percent. Nonetheless, the amount of money the city spends on fuel has increased. (see chart)
“There are many ways to control usage, but none are magic and, therefore, they can never keep pace with the spiking fuel costs,” said Daniel Nuckolls, Concord's fleet and transit services director.
Concord relies on entity-wide efforts to control fuel usage. For instance, each department head receives a monthly report of their fuel usage compared to their previous year's usage.
More than half of Concord's police fleet is powered by V6 engines.
“These cars average about 5 miles per gallon better fuel economy than the V8 models we were using. This represents a savings of approximately 15,000 gallons of fuel.”
The city also practices “right-sizing” of its fleet, meaning fuel economy and vehicle size are a consideration of every vehicle that Concord purchases. In addition, the city now can boast 10 hybrid vehicles and a couple of Global Electric Motorcars. Also, Concord Kannapolis Area Transit began service in 2004, offering eight buses in the region.
“We try to be realistic in our budget for fuel, but at the same time, we want each department to ‘aim low,' and keep their usage flat,” Nuckolls said. “The bottom line is: the cost per gallon is out of our hands, but usage can be controlled. Our fuel budget reflects that concept.”
Like Concord, Conover has changed some of its transportation and fleet policies over the past three years or so to accommodate for the high costs of fuel.
“We began by updating our fleet maintenance software, to allow us to better track individual vehicle fuel usage, and to monitor maintenance better,” said Duncan. “We switched all of our oil changes to synthetics, which allows for better fuel mileage. We no longer change on regular intervals but test our engine oil before changing. It also tells us if we have an engine, transmission or other critical driveline component starting to fail.”
The city has made a point to no longer purchase full-size gasoline-powered service trucks.
“If it is gasoline powered, we purchase a mid-size truck.”
All other Conover full-size and commercial vehicles are diesel-powered, including commercial lawn mowers and other small engine vehicles.
The city has also taken a long look at the types of fuels it uses.
“We also standardized our diesel fuel to all ULSD B-20 blends which gives us better purchasing power by volume,” said Duncan. “We have not seen a decrease in fuel economy, and in some vehicles we have seen an increase in economy.
“For gasoline, we switched everything to 87 octane mixed with an E-10 blend which equates to about a 91 Octane level. Our fuel is cheaper and has a more efficient combustion rate. However, this efficiency is lost when going to higher blends of Ethanol like E-85. Additionally, we are told our engine service life is extended slightly with both fuels, and we have seen an extension of maintenance schedules as mentioned above. This may be in part to running cleaner fuel, but also having our tanks inspected and cleaned on a regular basis.”
Conover's sanitation workers now go out earlier (5 a.m.) in the morning “to catch the routes with the highest amount of traffic.
“This reduces traffic congestion, improves air quality,” Duncan said, “and our guys love it in the summer because they are done before the hottest part of the day.”
The police department had swapped its fleet from Crown Victorias to Impalas, but Duncan stated that the maintenance costs outweighed fuel efficiency. Enter the Dodge Chargers which, so far, have had almost no maintenance problems and average 1.5 miles to the gallon better fuel economy than the Impala because of the Multi Displacement System.
“There is light on the dashboard that lets the officer know when they are in ‘four cylinder mode,'” explained Duncan. “It has become somewhat of a game between them to see who can produce the most efficient numbers.”
The rising cost of fuel can also have a major impact in other areas of local government, such as road paving projects. Nuckolls states that the petroleum-based materials costs have dynamically affected road paving.
“The cost of asphalt has increased over 90 percent in the past five years” from $34.20 per ton to $65.00 per ton placed on the street. “Our target to re-pave roads is a 20-year cycle. This has been pushed to 28 years, currently.”
Conover's paving costs, according to Duncan, have increased 40 percent in recent years.
“And we have not reduced the average miles paved. The future looks much worse according to our street department,” he said. “It is quite possible that our resurfacing will be reduced significantly in the future.”
Another lesser-known impact of the fuel costs is its affect on contract services. Some municipalities and counties have seen a dramatic rise in the fuel surcharge costs for waste collection.
“We estimate that this alone will add $30,000 to our contract in the upcoming budget year,” said Susan Holder, Sampson County's assistant manager. The company with which Sampson County contracts also provides municipal waste services, according to Holder, and “they are increasing their fees to municipalities, who are turning around and billing us higher rates for the water we purchase from them to make up the loss in their public works budget.
“Vicious cycle.”
This article originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Southern City.
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- Newton removes mandatory water restrictions , City of Newton, July 17, 2008
- Newton cracks down on fuel use , Hickory Daily Record, July 7, 2008
- Newton citizens urged to conserve water , City of Newton, June 30, 2008
- Rising fuel prices force cities and towns to get creative, Southern City, June 2008
- City gets federal funding for first hybrid bus , Greensboro News & Record, June 16, 2008
- Energy costs affecting all government, Hendersonville Times-News, May 29, 2008
-Cities build with an eye toward sustainability, Southern City, April 2008
- Saving water the low-tech way , Greensboro News & Record, April 2, 2008
- Cities and towns find ways to go green, Southern City, February 2008
-Raleigh inspectors to check for low-flow devices , WRAL.com, March 4, 2008
- Gov. Easley announces plans for plug-in hybrid plant in N.C., NBC 17, February 13, 2008
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- For fuel, N.C. looks homeward, Charlotte Observer, December 27, 2007
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-Port City adds hybrids, Wilmington Star-News, November 28, 2007
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