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Published Friday, September 26, 2008 in Local

Gas shortage impacting local-government services

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

While the gas shortage is currently affecting each Cowetan in an individual way, it's also having impacts on local governments.

The biggest impact has been for the city of Senoia.

In Senoia, with only three gas stations, outages hit pretty hard.

When those stations do have gas, "it can become overwhelming, especially at stations that are not designed to accommodate a heavy flow of traffic," said City Administrator Richard Ferry.

There have been a few times where there has been no gas in the city at all, Ferry said.

But "the city has a few informants to let us know when a delivery is made in case we need to prepare," he said.

City workers have been coming in at odd hours, often late at night, to get fuel while the getting is good, Ferry said. Police officers are on duty 24 hours a day, of course, "and can fuel the extra cars anytime," Ferry said.

When it is safe to do so, the water department meter readers have been making their rounds on electric golf carts, Ferry said. And nonessential travel for staff has been curtailed.

The city of Newnan has been getting along fairly well, said Public Information officer Gina Snider.

Many city vehicles, including fire trucks and public works trucks, run on diesel. And diesel has been fairly available. "We've been pretty fortunate and lucky with the diesel," Snider said.

The big unleaded users in the city are, of course, the police officers.

Snider said Police Chief Douglas "Buster" Meadows said the department hasn't been affected, so far.

"We have been fortunate enough to not have a problem," Snider said.

However, when an officer is on patrol and needs gas, they are directed to fill up whenever they fuel up, and with whatever grade is available.

Coweta County, the school system, and Grantville all have their own bulk fuel systems.

"It's been a struggle at times, but we have been able to find diesel to keep school buses running, and we are OK," said Dean Jackson, public information officer for the Coweta County School System.

Bus use is being kept to a minimum. "But we have to get 16,000-plus students to and from school every day," Jackson said.

That takes two to three diesel shipments a week, he said. Associate Superintendent Jerry Davis "has had to search constantly to keep up," Jackson said. "We're thankful we have been able to find what we need."

Very few school system vehicles use unleaded gasoline.

"We generally only need about one large shipment a month to maintain our gasoline needs, and we have been able to keep up with that," Jackson said.

Coweta County uses about 7,000 gallons of fuel a week, said County Public Information Officer Patricia Palmer.

"Our suppliers have been affected like everyone else, and are doing their best to keep us supplied," Palmer said.

The county's goal is to keep consumption as low as possible, and to make sure there will be fuel available for emergency needs, Palmer said.

She said County Administrator Theron Gay has spoken to all county departments and elected officials, and all are working to cut fuel use that is not absolutely necessary.

An example is the animal control department, she said. "Trips are being combined, delivery/checking/pick-up of traps are being combined or schedules altered, and ride-throughs are combined and mapped for greatest efficiency," she said.

Grantville hasn't had any problems either, said City Administrator Weyman Jenkins.

"We're trying to be as conservative as possible, but we really haven't had any ill effects -- other than escalating prices," Jenkins said.

The city only has to buy fuel every two weeks or so. "We filled it right when this first started," Jenkins said. So the tank is starting to run low. "We stay in touch with our supplier to be sure we'll be able to get gas when we need it."

Jenkins said the two gas stations in the city have had periodic shortages, but "most of the time when I go by, they have gas."

"I went by one day and they had just one grade of gas, but I haven't seen them completely out," he said.

Pam Mayer of the Coweta Convention and Visitors Bureau said that, despite high gas prices, overall visits to the county's welcome center have increased this year.

"We are definitely seeing an increase of visits in the Visitors Center from the local community, as well as tourists from in and out of the state wanting information on what there is to see and do in our county," she said. For August and September, visits to the center have actually doubled over last year.

Mayer thinks that people are still going and doing things -- they're just concentrating on things closer to home.

Gas is certainly a topic of conversation at the Visitors Center, though. "Our tourists are anxious when they have to look for gas in our area, but they are still traveling," Mayer said. "With a smile, they say 'well, if we can't find gas, we will just spend an extra night here and wait until we can purchase gas and be on our way.'"