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Tarpon feels pain of 161 fuel tanks to fill

Since 2003, city spending on fuel has more than tripled.

By ROBIN STEIN
Published May 4, 2006

TARPON SPRINGS - No one is immune from rising prices at the gas pumps. But civilians who are strapped for cash, at least, have options. A road trip can be postponed, a movie skipped, the sport utility vehicle replaced.

Government, on the other hand, must go on.

And in Tarpon Springs, surging fuel costs have taken a toll on city coffers, requiring an extra $132,087 for the coming fiscal year.

Ouch.

The additional funds, which were included in a resolution passed by the City Commission on Tuesday, come on top of the $262,171 originally allotted for fuel in the fiscal year 2006 budget, said Arie L. Walker, the city's finance director.

"What we've done is go back and do a 50 percent increase over the budget, because it wasn't nearly enough," said Walker. "We have cars on the road 24 hours a day - all kinds of equipment."

Records show that since 2003, city expenditures for fuel have more than tripled. With the police cruisers, the trolley, fire engines and backhoes, a recent count put the city's fleet at 161 vehicles.

Walker said city employees are largely unaware of cost increases because they use a gas card to fill up at designated pumps, which are supplied by F&Y Inc., a local fuel company.

To the finance department, though, which processes the invoices, the effects have been unmistakable.

To set the fuel budget for the 2006 fiscal year, Walker said her staff used $2.31, the price per gallon the city paid for diesel fuel in December 2004, and multiplied it by about 130 percent. They did the same for unleaded gasoline, which they paid $1.77 a gallon for in December 2004.

"We had assumed a 34 percent increase," she said. "But it's already up to almost $3 for diesel."

With the $132,087 addition, the city will spend $394,258 on fuel this year. In fiscal year 2003, the city spent $126,351 for fuel.

Extra gas money is essential to keep the various departments running, Walker said.

The resolution means the police will be allotted an additional $64,974 for fuel; the fire department, $11,737; the buildings and grounds crew, $2,707. An extra $1,863 will keep the trolley on the road.

The fallout has even reached the recreation department, the cemetery and the city manager's office, each of which have been allotted several hundred dollars more.

[Last modified May 4, 2006, 00:59:16]