Local agencies feel pinch of gas prices
Area law enforcement take measures to counter costs
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Sunday, April 6, 2008 1:29 PM PDT
| |
| A Pilot employee pumps gas at the service station situated at 653 East Idaho Ave., in Ontario. Gas prices have increased in recent years, leaving law enforcement agencies scrambling to fill the financial void. |
Ontario - Rising gas prices and a downward-turn in Ontario city finances have stretched local departments’ gas budgets, forcing changes in how these departments, such as the Ontario Police Department, operate.
The Energy Information Administration estimates the national gas price average for March is $3.29, with the western part of the United States experiencing the highest average total at $3.52 a gallon. Though the western region is the highest, it is increasing at the slowest rate of any part of the country.
City vehicles, like patrol cars, however, still need fuel to run, and any increase in gas prices can potentially cause issues in an already tight budget cycle.
“We budget $35,100 per year for fuel,” OPD Capt. Mark Alexander said. “$70,200 for the next two-year budget cycle.”
The Ontario Police Department patrol vehicles eat up an average of 20,000 to 22,000 miles a year.
It will cost between $3,352 and $3,818 a year to keep each of the department’s new Dodge Chargers topped off and from approximately $3,799 and $4,327 to keep the older Crown Victorias ready to roll.
In comparison, the fire department has budgeted $22,552 in fuel costs for the 2007-2008 fiscal year. The Public Works Department budgeted $170,195 from their streets fund, which will pay to fill up the vehicles that plow snow and sweep streets. It also budgeted $95,979 for Utility Maintenance fuel costs, which fuels the sewer trucks.
Alexander said the police, fire and public works departments use the same predicted gas price figure when planning their budget.
“We budget it at a dollar amount per year,” Finance Director Rachel Hopper said. “(Utilities Maintenance Supervisor) John Bishop does the fuel bid every other year. He shops the best price for the bulk of the year.”
Bishop listed the prices he predicted after consulting local gas stations.
“It’s $3.00 a gallon for diesel for the first year, $3.10 for the second year,” he said. “Regular gas is $2.85 for the first year, $2.95 for the second year, with July starting a new budget cycle.”
The City of Ontario also saves money because, as a municipality, it does not have to pay gas taxes.
However, Alexander said the department tries to cut corners where it can.
The Malheur County Sheriff’s Office also deals with budgetary worries pertaining to rising gas prices.
“We suffer through it,” Malheur County Undersheriff Brian Wolfe said.
“About four years ago, we went through something similar to this,” he said. “We didn’t have money to replace cars that year. So, down in Jordan Valley, we decided to limit the amount of driving to 100 miles a shift.”
However, with this decrease in patrolling, the Sheriff’s Office saw an increase in high-speed crashes, injuries and even death.
“There was a direct correlation with that,” Wolfe said. “After we took off the mileage restriction, within a week or two, the crashes went down.”
Wolfe said this decrease in patrol was problematic because of the amount of highway that was left unseen.
“Down there is 122 miles of highway, and they could only do 50 miles of that because of the drive back,” he said. “There was 72 miles of that highway that wasn’t being patrolled. We had to rethink that. Fortunately it didn’t take us a whole year to see.”
With current rising gas prices, the Sheriff’s Office has taken a different approach to dealing with answering calls.
“Say there is a criminal mischief call,” Wolfe said of calls that may involve vandalism. “Sometimes we make telephone calls instead of personal contact.”
However, this procedure does not apply to all calls.
“If there is a dog-at-large call, we tend to go out there,” Wolfe said. “A dog at large might not seem like a big deal to you or I when we’re 20 miles away, but it’s a very big deal to the person who called.”
Alexander also saw some changes in police procedure as necessary.
“There is not a lot we can do,” he said. “We are mandated to make court appearances in Vale.”
In order to conserve money, Alexander attempts to have officers travel in the same vehicle to Vale and organize training trips with other agencies.
“Not all of our training takes place in this area,” he said.
“The police academy is in Salem. Right now we have an officer in Bend taking a traffic certification course.”
State law dictates officers receive 84 hours of training every three years, with eight annual hours in firearms training.
However, Alexander attempts to decrease the amount of travel hours by working with other local agencies to change the location of the mandatory training.
“We try to get them held in this area. We work with Malheur County,” he said. “We try to bring them to us. We tapped into that with the firearms training.”
Wolfe agreed on the importance of nearby training.
“Training is always huge,” he said. “Rather than send people out all over the country, we’d rather bring them here.”
He said importing training is helpful because, not only does it cut down on fuel costs, it also decreases the amount spent on motel rooms and food for travelling officers.
Otherwise, area law enforcement agencies must take the rising gas prices as they come.
“When someone calls for service, we can’t just say ‘Sorry, we’re out of gas,’” Wolfe said. “We still serve.”
