Loganville City Council raises budget limit on fuel

By Jim Thompson – The Walton Tribune

Rising fuel prices, particularly for diesel fuel, prompted the Loganville City Council to act at its Monday work session to increase the monthly limit on fuel purchases from the city’s general fund not requiring council approval from $20,000 to $25,000.

While not a particularly unusual occurrence, it is notable that the council acted at its work session — which technically is designed to prepare the council for actual votes at the Thursday regular meeting following the Monday work session — to approve the increase in the fuel purchase limit.

The unanimous action was precipitated by the fact that the city had technically already exceeded the $20,000 limit for fuel expenditures from the general fund imposed on the city manager’s office with its latest bill from Social Circle-based Stephens Oil Company, its fuel supplier. That bill, received prior to Monday’s council work session, totaled $20,400.60.

According to City Manager Danny Roberts, the latest fuel bill, covering diesel and gasoline costs for city vehicles, as well as fuel for municipal maintenance equipment, marked the first time a fuel bill had exceeded the $20,000 limit.

The council took action to establish the new $25,000 monthly limit after learning from Roberts that fuel bills totaling more than $20,000 monthly are likely to be an ongoing issue for the city.

Ross Burrell, the city’s director of fleet maintenance, told the council Monday that the city does not pay the same price for fuel that they and city residents see posted at gas stations across the city.

The city’s prices from Stephens Oil Company, which delivers fuel to a municipal depot where fuel is pumped for city vehicles and equipment, are routinely 30 cents to 40 cents per gallon below the prices paid by retail fuel customers, Burrell said. Those vehicles and equipment use a total of 500 gallons of fuel every 10 days or thereabouts, the council learned Monday.

Over the course of a year, the lower fuel prices that the city pays because of having its own fuel depot probably save the municipal government somewhere between $36,000 and $40,000 annually, Burrell told the council.

“It’s well worth having a fuel depot for the city,” Burrell said.

To get some idea of how prices for gasoline and diesel fuel have trended in Georgia over the past 12 months, American Automobile Association (AAA) data for Georgia show the current average price of a gallon of regular gasoline at $3.85 per gallon, with the average price for diesel fuel at $5.79 per gallon. Both prices are relatively close to what they were a month ago, but are significantly higher than prices from one year ago, when regular gas was $2.90 per gallon and diesel fuel was $3.54 per gallon in Georgia.