Official: Plan would cut Trumbull’s fuel costs

By Ed Runyan

Changing purchasing practices could save 30 cents per gallon, an official said.

WARREN — A chief deputy in the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department with a background in the oil industry says it’s time the county took advantage of an opportunity to get cheaper gasoline prices.

Chief Deputy Ernie Cook, who worked on large accounts for eight years in the northern United States and in Canada for the oil company British Petroleum, says Trumbull County can maximize its buying power because of its location on the edge of three fuel regions of the United States.

Cook says Trumbull County is close enough to Pennsylvania to tap into the Eastern fuel market and close enough to West Virginia to tap into the Southeast fuel market. Currently, Trumbull County buys its fuel from the Midwest market based in Chicago, but it doesn’t always have the lowest price of the three markets, Cook said.

“We’re in a unique situation because we use Ohio pricing, but we could use the West Virginia or Pennsylvania markets,” Cook said.

Fuel prices in each of the three regions rise or fall depending on what is happening in some far-off region of the country, Cook said.

Cook conducted an analysis of fuel prices in the three regions over the past year and determined that the county could save $70,000 per year by having departments under the control of the Trumbull County commissioners and the county engineer’s office buy their fuel together, buy it from the lowest-cost region and improve the terms of purchase.

Buying from the lowest-price region could save around 18 cents per gallon, and improving terms could save another 12 cents per gallon, Cook said.

One term that lowers the cost is to pay for the fuel more quickly after it is delivered, Cook said.

Right now, the Trumbull County engineer’s office buys about 100,000 gallons of fuel per year, and the commissioners buy about 105,000 gallons per year for use by sheriff vehicles and other county departments, Cook said.

If those two departments begin working together successfully on fuel purchases, it won’t be hard to extend the concept to school districts and other government bodies, such as cities and villages, Cook said.

Cook will meet with the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments to discuss that possibility, he said.

Sometime after the new year begins, Cook said he plans to establish a Request For Proposals process to get the process started. He hopes to begin buying the fuel with other departments sometime in 2010.

David Rouan, director of administration and governmental affairs for county Engineer David DeChristofaro, said one complication that has arisen with Cook’s plan is that most of the engineer’s vehicles use diesel fuel, and most of the county’s vehicles use gasoline.

However, the engineer’s office is having talks with local townships, villages and cities about buying diesel fuel with them to accomplish the same goal, Rouan said.

As part of the process of saving money through combined purchases, the county engineer’s office is also applying for a grant through the Trumbull County Emergency Management Agency so it can purchase two generators at a cost of $110,000 for the engineer’s office.

The generators would provide the engineer and all other government and emergency-service agencies to still pump diesel fuel into their vehicles in the event of a prolonged power outage, Rouan said. Many emergency vehicles use diesel fuel, Rouan noted. The engineer’s office would also be the repository for an emergency supply of diesel fuel, he said.

runyan@vindy.com