Lead Stories and Pictures

(Part 1 of series)

County, school district, face fuel price woes

by Gerald Elkins
gelkins@nwaonline.net

True, everyday driving has become a lot more expensive for the common man.

It’s local vacations only, if taken at all. Grandma and grandpa will just have to wait until later to see the new baby — maybe next year.

Trips to get groceries or other essentials are better planned. Just wait until next time to get that milk you forgot to buy.

No, Johnny, you can’t have the car Friday night. Gas costs too much.

And so on.

But what if you were an independent trucker, a transportation director for a school system or the road foreman or commissioner of a county busy with multiple weather damage repairs? How would you cope with diesel fuel increases that have raised your 2008 costs by more than 30 percent or the prospect of even higher fuel costs for 2009?

Most likely, you’d just have to roll with the (diesel cost) flow, to adjust a worn-out phrase to suit this situation. That’s what those who use a lot of diesel fuel have no choice but to do. And they say there aren’t any quick fixes on the horizon.

Jerry Mullins, in charge of day-to-day operations of McDonald County’s Road Department, said the cost for the average 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel he uses a month are costing the county between $34,000 - 36,000 ($4.03 a gallon, wholesale, a month right now. That’s up from the $22,000 ($2.78 a gallon wholesale) a month average in 2007. Four months ago, the county was paying just $3.67 a gallon.

Mullins budgeted $170,000 for fuel this year, up from about $140,000 in 2007’s budget. He figures fuel expenses will probably exceed that amount. A main reason is that repair of roads and bridges damaged by five major floods have created cost concerns. In fact, Mullins said there is about $200,000 of concrete work needed on low-water bridges; work he can’t tackle yet because there are no funds to do it with.

Even without the flooding, there is plenty of work to do. “Really, we’re going to have a lot to do anyway,” Mullins said.

If you take the $36,000 a month current fuel cost times 12 months, you come up with about $432,000 for the year.

If diesel prices keep jumping, will the county road department’s fuel budget request be for $500,000 in 2009, $330,000 more than this year?

Will the county be forced to cut back on road work because of the rising costs?

“We keep the trucks pretty much on the road every day,” Mullins said, indicating the work has to go on no matter what happens.

“If things go like they are — and our tax receipts are down somewhat (now) — we’ll have to look at it,” said Presiding Commissioner Larry Jones, making no definite commitment to what action might be taken.

The county is not the only one spending more money for basic fuel consumption.

The McDonald County School District’s fuel costs are also very high and getting higher, according to Dick Davis, Asst. Superintendent for Transportation.

To keep 48 route buses and three activities buses on the road picking up and dropping off students the district budgeted $250,000 for diesel fuel this year. Next year, Davis said, that line item is set for $300,000.

The district paid $3.73 a gallon for fuel last month, about $1 higher than last year, when buses covered a total of 640,642 miles.

The district switched from gasoline engines to diesel in their buses about 10 years ago as a way to save funds. “Who ever thought diesel would cost more than gasoline?” Davis wondered.

“We try to base it on trends,” Davis said. “By all trends it looks like it’s going to go up. Not for just what we do, but the shipping we receive.”

Davis gets somewhat adamant about rising costs that effect school children so much, not just with fuel, but also in other things used by the district.

“I’m a firm believer that it is creating the cost increases in food,” he said of the fuel costs.

He also has other concerns with the cost of fuel overall, not just diesel. “My greatest concern is we have a lot of teachers who drive here every day,” Davis said, adding he would hate to lose good teachers who want to teach at McDonald County to the high price of fuel.

Another fear is that extra-curricular activities that are beneficial to children, even helping some get scholarships, could be curtailed.

“We don’t get reimbursed for non-route miles,” Davis said.

He also predicted the presence of fewer vehicles on the high school parking lot next year and an increase of children riding buses. “I hope kids don’t quit to work so they can drive cars,” Davis said. He also worries parents will be forced to stay away from their kids’ sporting activities because of gas prices.

What about the biodiesel fuel use payback program the state sponsored from 2003 to 2006? Did the local district take advantage of it?

“No, we’re kind of concerned,” Davis began. “The bus companies said that might void our warranties.”

The state of Missouri is going to a mandate a mixture of bio-diesel and standard fuels next year.

“We’ll probably have to get additives and pray the companies we buy our vehicles from will honor that because it’s mandated,” Davis said.

Talking about the national hoopla on bio-this and bio-that tends to send Davis into the next gear.

He said he understands why the farmers might switch to growing basics for bio-fuels because they make more money from it, but he doesn’t want to see the science threaten the food usage.

“We need to find other alternatives, but when you’re talking about corn and grains, that concerns me,” Davis said. “When I was a kid, corn was a food item, now it’s a fuel item.”

Oil companies are making money, lots of it, Davis indicated. “Last week, when I saw how much Exxon® made, I got out my dictionary and looked up profit,” he said. “Mr Webster said it was ‘anything above expenses.’ That’s pretty simple.”

What’s coming in the future is anybody’s guess.

“I’ve heard there are a lot of good ideas out there, but the automobile companies bought them all up and we’ll never hear of them,” Davis said. “The government is out of touch with reality. The government scares me because I don’t think they know there’s a problem yet.”

Next week: Part II will include a look at the fuel concerns of local manufacturing and processing businesses, independent truckers and tourism, with a list of the history of crude oil prices in the United States.