Gas prices, snow sink city fuel budgets

By Stephanie Chelf
Staff writer

February 25, 2008 05:59 am

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Joe Piantedosi does everything he can to save the town of Andover money on energy bills. But there's one thing the director of plant and facilities can't control — the price of gas.

And with gas prices taking another jump in recent weeks, Piantedosi expects Andover will be facing a $46,000 deficit for fuel when the budget cycle ends in June.

"Consumption of fuel is not going up," Piantedosi said. "It's going down a little. But it's the cost. There's no other way than the little things — tune-ups, not let (cars) idle for excessive times, keep the tires inflated, and reduce unnecessary trips. Those are the things that are already in place."

Gas prices are higher than when the communities set their budgets last summer, and the white winter full of snow, ice and plenty of storms has meant more fuel expenses to keep local roads plowed.

Andover based this year's budget on a price of $2.30 per gallon for unleaded and $2.40 per gallon of diesel. Today, the department is paying more like $2.65 for unleaded and $3 for diesel, according to Piantedosi.

Other towns in the Merrimack Valley are also feeling the pinch.

In Methuen, City Auditor Tom Kelly said he's concerned that the Public Works Department will head into deficit before the year is up.

"They're going to need some money. It's relevant to the snowstorms," Kelly said.

This year, the city budgeted $394,000 for gas for vehicles in the Fire, Police and Public Works departments. The city has spent $257,269 of that with about four months to go in this budget year.

Methuen Department of Public Works Director Ray DiFiore carefully monitors all gas fill-ups for his fleet of vehicles. Each vehicle is equipped with a chip that tracks mileage and gas purchases. If a driver fills up today, the chip will prevent him from filling up the tank the next day.

"If they fill it up (again), it won't activate the pump," DiFiore said."It keeps a close tab on what's expended by each department."

As the snow fell Friday afternoon, local public works officials braced themselves for another round of costly cleanup.

"We're at the mercy of the weather," Piantedosi said. "If we get a lot of snow we go through huge sums of fuel. We have downsized fleet where we could, and we try not to purchase larger vehicles."

City and towns are able to get discounted fuel — they don't have to pay the 21-cent per gallon federal tax, but — as they do for everyone else — the prices still fluctuate based on the market conditions.

The city of Haverhill has spent $349,000 of its $459,000 gasoline budget, said mayor's aide Andrew Herlihy. City leaders aren't worried about that spending — yet.

"We're actually not bad," Herlihy said. "We did a pretty good job budgeting for it. It's not a crisis yet."

Lawrence Mayor Michael Sullivan expects the next budget year to bring even more fuel costs. His staff is preparing for a 30 percent increase in fuel expenses next year.

"It's something we try to control the best we can," Sullivan said, adding that he is looking to the state for more money. "It's a line-item buster."

Another concern for the city's budget is the startling number of fires in the city, and the fuel expense to fight those fires.

"We've had 30 fires since last September," Sullivan said. "The Fire Department has been very active. We're hoping the state can fill that hole and restore our aid where we can keep Police, Fire and Public Works whole this year."