By Angel Perkins News-Mirror Editor
Editor’s note: With rising fuel costs a topic at any gathering of the minds I thought it would be interesting to see how those prices affect our readers and local entities. This is part two of a three part look at how we are affected and what we do about it.
Towns, like individuals and schools, are also adversely affected by today’s rising fuel costs. Bourbon’s entities are not only faced with the higher costs for fuel but department heads and the town clerk must juggle budgets to make the dollar stretch.

Clerk-Treasurer Kim Berger noted that the Bourbon Police Department has three vehicles while the street department owns two utility vehicles plus two snowplows and one backhoe which they must fuel from their respective budgets. Bourbon’s water/wastewater department owns three utility vehicles and a Vactor truck and also uses the backhoe for some projects.
Utilities Superintendent Mike McFarland said that his crew has already implemented a ‘no idle’ rule and takes measures to assure no fuel goes to waste.
“We try to fuel up when the price is the lowest and we’ve parked one of the vehicles,” he explained. “If we stop for less than a minute or so we do leave them on because to restart it would only wear the starter for no good reason, and wouldn’t save much in the long run. The same goes for the Vactor and backhoe (vehicles).”
McFarland said he takes his personal practices to work with him, assuring that all his fleet have fresh oil filters, filled oil and have plenty of air in the tires. With the newest vehicle being four years old and the oldest 18 years old, he said they cut back as best they can.
“We don’t know what to expect,” McFarland explained. “It’s anybody’s guess. Last year we raised our budget 8 percent. We thought it would run $3.10 to $3.15 a gallon at the highest and six months after we did, look what happened.”
The cost difference is all too plain to see. The Water and Wastewater Department’s fuel expenses for last year totaled  $10,006.34.
    This year, as of Aug. 1, those departments have spent $7,335.46. McFarland said the water fund spending was fairly on track but they’ve used 63 percent of the wastewater fuel fund’s budget already.
“We’d like to run the Vactor six to eight times a month (to clean water and sewer lines and etc.),” he explained. “But when you’re using five to six gallons of fuel an hour, that’s just not possible.”
He said the utility departments also try to wait out trips for items until they have a larger list and they buy fuel and supplies in town if they can find the resources they need.
“For example, I could save 40 cents a box for bolts if I drove to Plymouth or Warsaw but when I spend $25 in fuel and wages, you’re not really saving money,” he said.
The town of Bourbon had formerly bought its own fuel in bulk and contained what was needed for the town vehicles and the emergency departments in tanks, but with environmental concerns and costs incurred through insurance, regular testings and approvals from the state and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to keep that fuel, they were no longer saving money that way.
Chasing the lowest price around the county doesn’t actually save much either.
McFarland explained, “If I use $8 in gas to save $0.6 per gallon, how does that really save?”
Personally, McFarland said, he’s had to curb his extra-curricular activities as money he would’ve used is now spent on the difference in fuel costs.
Street Department Super-visor Roger Terry shared some of the same opinions and realizations when trying to keep within, if not under, budget. “We try not to make as many trips,” he said. “We do as much maintenance and repair as we can ourselves.”
With a street sweeper, (wood) chipper, mowing tractor, dump trucks and snow plows, they can only attempt to do their best with conserving resources.
Terry said that his team also discourages vehicle idling but has already used about 75 percent of his department’s budget eight months into the year.
“And with winter coming, those trucks have to go,” he explained. “Coal patch and hot mix (used to fill potholes) went up 40 to 70 percent.”
While three of the street department’s vehicles are diesel, those prices are still higher than they have been and more than they were expected to rise in this fuel fight America faces.
“This new diesel fuel isn’t what it’s cracked up to be,” Terry explained. “We’re not getting the performance out of it that we thought we would.”
The Bourbon Street Department spent $4523.34 last year on fuel and so far this year, $3,719.59 with four more months — the winter months — yet to go. Bourbon’s emergency services can’t any more conserve than they can prevent emergencies as they must respond, budget exhausted or not.
In 2007 the Bourbon Police Department spent $12,844.92 on fuel and so far (through July) have spent $7,662.56. “We stopped about 80 percent of our idling,” said Bourbon Police Chief John West. “There isn’t a lot we can do to conserve gas because we have so much electronic equipment-our cameras, radar, radios, and computers-if they sit long without being on they wear out the battery.”
West explained the electronics also needed time to upload before they could work properly every time the vehicle is shut off and waiting for that to happen while that they need to tend to a potential crime scene isn't an option.
“We are the biggest fuel user in the town,” West said. “We take turns between the local gas stations depending on who is the cheapest. Two cents a gallon doesn’t seem like much but it makes a world of difference at the end of the year. We are very limited with what we can do.”
The chief added the only other way his department could conserve fuel would be to do fewer patrols, and that was something he doesn't plan on doing.