Public works department, police adapt to pressure of fuel cost increase

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Nevada, Mo. -- Higher fuel prices don't just mean paying more at the gas pumps for city. Higher prices have an impact over a broad range of services, not just police and fire departments. Randy Marti, administrative services director for the city of Nevada, said that the high cost of fuel is a "double whammy" -- it causes a drop in revenue, not just an increase in expenses.

"When people are paying more for fuel they have to conserve in other ways and that means less spending," Marti said. "With our income tied to the sales tax that means lower revenues for the city."

Street repairs also suffer when fuel prices go up, asphalt and other materials cost more as well.

"When the price goes up we have to re-evaluate the budget and see what can be done," Marti said. "The money stays the same but the projects get smaller to make up the difference."

Emergency services must remain active but Gary Herstein, Nevada's public safety director, said that when calls came in they are responded to; but on regular patrol, officers were encouraged to park and observe more often.

"It's helped," Herstein said. "It appears that the number of citations or arrests haven't gone down so the officers are still being just as effective, they're just not using as much fuel."

Joe Charles, Public Works director for the city of Nevada, said that there was little that could be done to cut fuel use because each project required certain vehicles be there.

"There's not a whole lot we can do to cut fuel consumption except not leave the vehicles idle when someone isn't actually driving them," Charles said. "We do ask crews to try and bring all the equipment they will need on a job with them when they first leave so they won't have to make extra trips."

The street department has six crews who work at various projects around the city. Charles said it was difficult to put a number on how much equipment they had without consulting the inventory.

"We've got enough for six independent crews," Charles said. "Some of the lesser used equipment we only have one or two units but for the most part we have enough for one for each crew."

Charles said that he tried to anticipate increases when he prepared the budget but costs have risen so fast the reality is worse than his pessimistic expectation.

"I figured a 20 percent increase and it looks like that won't even touch what it will turn out to be," Charles said. "We're early in the budget year and it's already gone up 15 percent since I did the budget."