Committee endorses 24-hour fuel tanks

Justices of the peace advanced an appropriation request last week for new fuel tanks county employees would have 24-hour access to at the Garland County landfill and road department.

The Garland County Quorum Court Environmental Services, Public Works and Buildings Committee gave a do-pass recommendation to appropriate funds for two 15,000-gallon, self-contained tanks with round-the-clock access for select personnel. The $50,979 cost per tank would raise the solid waste fund's appropriation level to 78.13 percent of its $11.9 million in anticipated annual revenue, and the road fund to 84.41 percent of its $7.9 million in expected receipts.

State law caps appropriations at 90 percent of a fund's anticipated revenue. The committee's endorsement sent the funding request to the county Finance Committee.

A card-reader system would allow employees to get fuel, assigning each card a pin number that tracks fuel type and quantity, the vehicle getting fuel and when the transaction occurred. Each county department issued cards would be billed monthly for their fuel use, as the tank at the landfill could be accessed by any county employee who is issued a card.

The tanks can hold 12,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 3,000 gallons of gasoline. Cards can be programmed to limit use to only diesel or gasoline or allow access to both fuel types. They can be tracked and remotely deactivated when lost or used by someone no longer working for the county.

Committee Chairman Darryl Mahoney said limiting refueling to the landfill deters unauthorized use of the cards.

"It's a lot better than having them purchase it in the field," he told the committee. "We could've went to a card system where you get gas anywhere, but if you have a problem employee, they're more likely to try and steal gas at the E-Z Mart than they are to drive right up to where it's monitored by a camera. There's a lot of safeguards in place with this system."

County Judge Rick Davis said the tanks would give the county a needed reserve in the event of an emergency, and landfill officials said the savings generated by having a larger tank would pay for the system in five years. The current 4,000-gallon diesel tank and 1,000-gallon gasoline tank at the landfill don't allow bulk fuel purchases, adding 10-cents on average to the per-gallon price.

"By us having a bigger tank we get a truck load of fuel which makes the price go down," Billy Sawyer, deputy director of environmental services, told the committee. "It also allows us to watch fuel prices in order to buy fuel ahead of a spike in price.

"The savings just last year buying it at truckload price instead of small-truck price would have saved the county approximately $9,700. This does not include the money we are going to be saving by watching the cost of fuel, buying low and holding while fuel is up."

Local on 01/24/2017

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