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“We’re feeling a pinch, just like everybody,” City Manager Joe Pryor said.
City officials halted projects this spring as the price of the oil used in the projects rose and drained the remainder of roughly $120,000 allotted in the 2007-08 budget for the repairs.
The city completed half of the repairs – around 20 of the 40 planned blocks – but had to delay the work to avoid breaking the 2007-08 budget, Pryor said.
Road repairs are not the sole strain on the city’s budget either.
Fuel expenses from providing basic city services – such as the police department, fire department and emergency medical services – increased more than expected by the city council when they made the budget last year, straining the budget even more.
City officials do not expect to overspend this year’s budget, despite the unpredictable state of the oil market, and are already thinking about how to solve the fuel problem for the 2008-09 budget.
“No one saw how oil would increase. That has made it hard to keep up and come up with solid answers for the ’08 - ’09 budget,” Mayor Joe Hermes said.
Across the Crossroads region, fuel has jumped an average of 26 cents per gallon since this time last May and $1.11 since June 2007, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
The city council will go into the budget process in July and decide what to do for the next budget year.
“This budget is going to be a difficult one to go through,” Pryor said. “To try and get ourselves onto some kind of level playing field. That we can still get our jobs done and still meet the cost of fuel and the transport and everything else.”
Brandon L. Leonard is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-574-1286 or bleonard@vicad.com.