Va. Town to cut gas usage

Mount Vernon, Va. Has been keeping track of its municipal fleet fuel consumption in hopes of finding ways to cut down. City Administrator Mike Beimer said at the city council meeting in August that he had information on past and current fuel consumption for vehicles used for city business, but the future is hard to predict.

In 1999, Beimer said, oil was $10 a barrel, and it may be around $110 a barrel soon. There are 10 vehicles in the city fleet, plus equipment. That includes four plow trucks, a skid loader, backhoe, five generators, three tractors, two riding mowers, an air compressor, seven different saws and a limb chipper. The police department cars are not included in the total.

Beimer said the city staff keeps track of fuel consumption and will continue to monitor it. For the past six months, minus the patrol cars and the ambulance fuel usage, Beimer estimated a monthly average cost of $4,000 for the equipment listed. The city workers are trying to use a small vehicle, called a gator, as much as possible because it is consuming about one-and-a-half gallons of fuel weekly, while mowing the parks, for example, takes 17 gallons of gas for the same time period.

Source: www.mtvernonlisbonsun.com