Fuel costs have taken toll on city's budgets

Editor's Note: This is part of a series reviewing the city of Blytheville's financial records for 2009 and 2010, when the city failed to pay some $2.4 million in payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

Rising gas costs may have played a role in the city of Blytheville's financial struggles the last few years.

The city paid Bruners Fuels and Lubricants $799,187.30 for fuel in 2009 and 2010 combined, according to financial records.

In 2009, the city shelled out $340,725.73 to Bruners for gas and oil, unleaded gas and road diesel and off-road diesel, averaging $28,393.81 a month in 2009.

In 2010, the figure was $458,461.57, an average of $38,205.13 per month.

Former Blytheville Mayor Barrett Harrison said the price of gas definitely affected the city's budgetary process during those years.

"We had to look at it quite often," he said. "Several times during the course of the year we would have to consider it. The Finance Committee had to amend the budget several times. You try to predict what gas is going to cost over the upcoming year, but you can't always be sure about that."

Harrison mentioned that the city even once considered changing the way it purchased fuel, looking at the use of Fuelman discount cards, but decided in the end that it wouldn't save enough. He said in order to save gas, he and other city officials started asking all employees who drove city vehicles to make sure they turned them off when they made stops, and even bought vehicles with higher fuel efficiency engines.

"We tried to keep our cars tuned up so that their fuel efficiency would be higher, and made sure that the sanitation, street, police, and other workers kept them turned off as much as possible, but we would still end up having to amend the budget for that reason at the end of the year from time to time," said Harrison, who was the city's mayor from 1999-2010.

According to figures from Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson, last month the city's average gas cost was $3.43 per gallon.

He said in January 2008 it was $2.94 a gallon, and by July 2008 it had risen to $3.90 a gallon.

In January of 2009, the city paid $1.77 a gallon and nine months later it paid $2.38 per gallon, according to Thompson.

The average unleaded gas cost in Arkansas in September 2009 was $2.34 a gallon.

Thompson said in January 2010 the city paid $2.56 a gallon and September 2010 it paid $2.61 per gallon.

By comparison, the state average for unleaded gas in January 2010 was $2.62 and it was $2.49 in September 2010.

mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com

sharris@blythevillecourier.com