With fuel prices easily topping the $4 mark, government agencies are making a few changes in response to the rising costs. The following overviews provide a glimpse into the challenges of running the schools system, county and cities on a budget while still providing Catoosa County citizens with the quality of service they are used to.

Fort Oglethorpe

Fort Oglethorpe City Attorney and Interim City Manager Ron Goulart said he has used 59 percent of his $174,000 fuel budget so far this year.

“It’s gone up so much, we’re doing pretty good,” he said. “We’ll do some more cuts and I think we’ll be all right.”

Goulart said he had planned for an increase in fuel costs this year, but had no idea that prices would nearly double. That’s why he called all of his department heads into a meeting about three months ago and discussed the situation with them.

Since that time, police officers have started doing more stationary patrols, parking at business centers and walking around inside or remaining in the car more often to observe surroundings, he said.

“Of course,” Goulart said, “we’ll continue to patrol our neighborhoods. We’re not going to curtail that.”

At $89,000, the police department’s fuel budget is the biggest of all the city departments, officials said, but the patrol division has consumed only 54 percent of its fuel budget while the other divisions within the police department are under budget.

Goulart said he is considering purchasing a fuel efficient, two-seater Smart car for officers to use to patrol neighborhoods.

Other departments have to watch their consumption, too, Goulart said.

Another way the city has cut back expenses is by curtailing use of the streetsweeper. Fuel usage will decrease somewhat also because the city has completed its demolition and preparation of the old wastewater treatment plant on Mack Smith Road. Goulart said bulldozers and other equipment used for that project near the beginning of the year ate up a lot of fuel.

Although Goulart has withdrawn his name from consideration for a permanent job as city manager, he said he is doing what he can to cut fuel consumption now and into the next year.

“I’m going to attempt to cut the consumption by 25 percent,” he said. “I’m just proud of the department heads for being conservative and not waiting until the end of the year and saying ‘Oh, gee, we’re at twice our budget,’” he said. “They’ve done a super job of working within their means.”

Post/Fort Oglethorpe fire department

Board Chairman Marlin Thompson of the Post Volunteer Fire Department said drivers have had to curb some of their training because of the high price of fuel.

Thompson said becoming familiar with the neighborhoods and practicing driving the fire engines under various conditions is an important part of new drivers’ training.

“The common citizen views it as wasting money,” he said. “That’s not really the case...We have had to cut back on that...We’ve already used our fuel budget for the whole year.”

Thompson said the Post had budgeted only $3,500.

City financial director Pam Travillian said the cost for the combined efforts of the Post and Fort Oglethorpe Fire Department at three fire stations was $14,098 from January through June.

The Post works in conjunction with Fort Oglethorpe, and the two entities are often referred to as the same department even though they keep separate accounting books.

Another way the city has cut back expenses is by curtailing use of the streetsweeper. Fuel usage will decrease somewhat also because the city has completed its demolition and preparation of the old wastewater treatment plant on Mack Smith Road. Goulart said bulldozers and other equipment used for that project near the beginning of the year ate up a lot of fuel.

Although Goulart has withdrawn his name from consideration for a permanent job as city manager, he said he is doing what he can to cut fuel consumption now and into the next year.

“I’m going to attempt to cut the consumption by 25 percent,” he said. “I’m just proud of the department heads for being conservative and not waiting until the end of the year and saying ‘Oh, gee, we’re at twice our budget,’” he said. “They’ve done a super job of working within their means.”

Post/Fort Oglethorpe fire department

Board Chairman Marlin Thompson of the Post Volunteer Fire Department said drivers have had to curb some of their training because of the high price of fuel.

Thompson said becoming familiar with the neighborhoods and practicing driving the fire engines under various conditions is an important part of new drivers’ training.

“The common citizen views it as wasting money,” he said. “That’s not really the case...We have had to cut back on that...We’ve already used our fuel budget for the whole year.”

Thompson said the Post had budgeted $3,500.

City financial director Pam Travillian said the cost for the combined efforts of the Post and Fort Oglethorpe Fire Department at three fire stations was $14,098 from January through June.

The Post works in conjunction with Fort Oglethorpe, and the two entities are often referred to as the same department even though they keep separate accounting books.

Catoosa County government

Catoosa County chief financial officer Carl Henson said the county is seeing a 25-28 percent increase in its fuel expenses.

“In the budget we have added $115,000 more for gasoline and diesel,” he said. “We are looking at alternatives in some departments like the road department.

Henson said that employees could move to a four-day workweek with a 10-hour shift.

“This will take vehicles off the road one day a week,” he said. “That’s a 20 percent reduction for that department. We have not implemented it yet.”

Henson said the county will have to work through the plan to see its long-term impact.

He added that this fall he anticipates seeing the rise in costs impacting utilities the county pays.

City of Ringgold

City Manager Dan Wright said Ringgold expects to make budget revisions in the fall to compensate for rising fuel costs.

“We are constantly looking at ways to reduce fuel cost,” he said. “We use golf carts to read water meters and change out meters and we also use those for landscaping and maintenance of city properties.”

Ringgold planned $86,000 in its annual budget and it used $51,783 or approximately 60 percent so far, according to Will Baerg Ringgold financial officer.

So, the city is currently running about 2 percent over anticipated fuel costs overall but several departments such as streets is nearly 18 percent over its $12,000 budget and police is 9 percent over its $22,000 budget, he said.

“We are using trailers to move large equipment instead of driving them long distances over the road,” he said. “We are also purchasing fuel efficient heavy equipment and vehicles.”

Wright said the key to saving is better planning of public works department work orders to eliminate additional trips to the job sites and to possibly do several jobs near a location at one time.

“We are asking our public works employees to help and come up with additional ideas to reduce fuel expense,” he said.

Catoosa public school system

Director of Operations for the Catoosa County Public Schools, Damon Raines has said the budget for gas usage has been increased.

“The budget had already been increased to $450,000 this year and for the upcoming year it will be $750,000,” Raines said.

Due to the recent spike and continued increase in gas prices, the school system is writing a contingency plan in case the prices get even higher. The plan would limit the number of field trips taken each year and also the distance traveled. The schools will also try to get sponsors for as many trips as possible to elevate the raising cost of fuel. In addition, coaches will try to get sponsors for each athletic trip they must take.

“For athletic trips we will try to get as many people as we can on the buses,” said Raines. “Instead of taking two buses for cheerleaders and football players they will be placed on the same bus.”

Bus routes will continue to go as previously planned out by the Versatran program used to find the most efficient routes. Routes are designed to be as efficient as possible with the children’s safety as the main concern. According to Raines, as a result of the increase in fuel there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of students riding the buses.



Catoosa County Sheriff’s department

Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers acknowledged that, like several other local governmental departments, the sheriff’s department is over budget on fuel.

“The allotted $150,000 per year is roughly a fourth over the budget,” said Summers. “Nearly $200,000 will be spent in gas by the years end.”

Currently methods have been taken to reduce the use of gasoline, but patrols and regular operations have not been changed. According to Summers, the extra money used for gas will be taken out of different areas of the sheriffs department rather then reducing patrol units.

If gas continues to rise however, there is the possibility of placing two officers per unit rather than one each. This could reduce the response time, which is currently averaged at 10 minutes. Right now, Summers explained, it would be to difficult to do this during the day shifts but during the evening when there are less calls, it is a possibility.

The Chattanooga police department currently takes information for minor thefts (like a stolen bike) by phone and sends out officers to more immediate matters. According to Summers, this is an option but he said he does not wish to do this because “law enforcement should have direct contact with its citizens.”

Future plans to purchase more economic vehicles may also be an option, if gas prices continue to rise, but there are no official plans.