By GREG JORDAN
PRINCETON — Just like households and businesses, government services are counting their pennies. As prices for gasoline and diesel fuel keep creeping toward and even exceeding the $4 per-gallon mark, entities running everything from fire engines to school buses are looking at ways to stretch their dollars.
Each department of a city government is inherently different, said City Manager Wayne Shumate of Princeton. The goal is to save cost while maintaining public services.
“Everybody is trying to do something to save money,” said Princeton Police Chief W.L. Harman. “We’re working to cut out extensive idling, but we’re not cutting back on patrol.”
Like other motorists, police try to find the best prices for gasoline and consider more fuel-efficient vehicles when it comes time to buy any, Harman said.
“If you can save 3 cents a gallon, that’s 3 cents a gallon, and you save quite a bit,” he said. Departments also try to buy cruisers with better mileage, but they must find vehicles that can carry police equipment as well as save on gas.
Police officers and firefighters cannot always consolidate trips or car pool. Regular trips can be consolidated to save on mileage, but price isn’t a consideration when there are emergencies; however, fuel tanks still must be refilled later.
“We’ve been trying to cut out any unnecessary running as much as possible,” said Fire Chief Shawn Vest. “We haven’t cut emergency responses, of course.”
But even one emergency run requires plenty of fuel. For instance, a normal house fire lasting two hours runs up pump bills. After such a fire, refueling the necessary vehicles — two fire trucks and a ladder truck — costs up to $175. That’s with diesel costing approximately $4.25 a gallon. The ladder truck alone gets, with luck, only four miles a gallon, Vest said.
Public entities running fleets of vehicles are watching fuel prices, too. School buses run at least five days a week, and each requires fuel.
“We wish we knew what to do to keep them [costs] under control,” said Superintendent Suzette Cook of McDowell County Schools. “We’re looking to be as efficient as we can be, but we have a county that’s pretty huge, area-wise, and a lot of busing that has to occur. We’re very concerned with diesel prices, and those are higher than gas now.”
Fuel is becoming a bigger category on school system budgets.
“As we’ve been preparing our budget for next year, we have a huge concern about the carryover the state would like for you to have and what we will have because of the diesel prices,” Cook said. “As we look at that, I’m sure every system in the state is equally concerned about that. You try to make ends meet because you have to run buses, you have to get students to school. That’s part of public education that we provide. I’m sure it’s a concern for superintendents all over the state.”
In Mercer County, school board members try to anticipate hikes in fuel prices and budget accordingly, said Superintendent Deborah Akers of Mercer County Schools. Making fewer bus runs or consolidating routes would leave children aboard buses for too long, she said.
Buses transporting both adults and children are seeing more riders as gasoline prices climb.
“It [ridership] continually goes up. Probably three to five percent over the last six months,” said Patrick McKinney, general manager of Bluefield Area Transit. “Every time there’s a major cost increase we get more phone calls asking about the routes and schedules.”
The number of people taking the bus each month keeps going up.
“For instance, in January we had ridership of 13,662, and in February it jumped up 14,678 and then in March it went to 15,428,” McKinney said. “I’m actually run overbudget on my fuel items, but I’ve been able to pick up a couple of contracts to make up the difference. We contract this service for an electrical company in McDowell County that’s working on the new prison by taking workers to the job site.”
Bluefield Transit’s fleet of 24 buses is carrying residents to work, shopping and other destinations.
“We’re covering the major parts of Mercer County like Bluefield, Princeton, we have weekend service to Athens, and then we cover Route 52 down to Welch, and we have dial-a-ride in Welch which covers Gary and Welch and Premier Park and all the surrounding areas,” McKinney said. “Anywhere in Bluefield is a dollar, from Bluefield to Princeton is $2, from Bluefield to Welch is $2.”
Another transportation system, provided by police officers and the regional jail authority, consumes gasoline when transporting people from the Southern Regional Jail near Beckley to Mercer County and back again. Now video technology makes it possible to have arraignments and other hearings without driving defendants to and from jail.
Mercer County is more fortunate than some other counties because it still has the Bluefield City Jail to house inmates overnight, said Magistrate Mike Flanigan. This saves on travel expenses, but there are still instances when people wanted in Mercer County are arrested outside its borders. Then they are more likely to be taken to the regional jail in Raleigh County.
“In the past an officer had to drive all the way to Beckley to get them, then all the way back again,” Flanigan said.
Though it is not used in every case, magistrates now have the option of arraigning suspects by video. A special room at the regional jail allows defendants and court officials to see each other over a video monitor. Documents that must be signed are faxed between both locations. Flanigan recently used the system to arraign two suspects in the robbery of a Princeton pharmacy.
“The upshot is the video arraignment has saved considerable gas for deputies and wear and tear on their cruisers, and it also frees up an officer,” Flanigan said. “It saves time and saves the community money.”
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
