Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Services fall victim to $4 gas prices
Local charity is one bright spot, but it’s costing volunteers more to do good
by Janel Davis | Staff Writer
Charles E. Shoemaker⁄The Gazette Georgia Mae Birdsall (in dark glasses) visits Mary Jane Purcell (right) and her home care nurse, Eileen Wolfinger, after dropping off meals for Purcell, one of the 80 people served by the Chevy Chase Meals on Wheels program.
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It costs Frank Carroll about $75 to fill up the tank of his older model Mercury Grand Marquis. It gets about 17 miles a gallon.
His route through Chevy Chase delivering food as part of the Meals on Wheels program is 10 miles. He drives four more miles from his home to Temple Emanuel onConnecticut Avenue where volunteers pick up meals to deliver to elderly and disabled clients.
When Carroll began working for the charity four years ago the gallon of unleaded gasoline cost $2.01. Today’s he’s paying $4.05.
‘‘From what I’ve heard no one has complained or stopped because of the gas prices,” he said. ‘‘We just prioritize our lives and put this first. It’s important to feed the hungry. It’s that simple.”
Carroll’s agency has escaped a downturn in volunteers seen elsewhere. The dedicated group of 150 volunteers allows Meals on Wheels to spread out their service days so that the cost of delivering the meals doesn’t fall on the same people all the time. About 80 people receive two meals on weekdays.
Nationally and regionally, service programs using drivers paying for their own gasoline, such as Meals on Wheels, have been hurt by a falloff in volunteers who can’t afford higher gasoline prices. Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland, which serves the Baltimore area and four other counties, has lost about 200 volunteers. News reports from Kansas City, Kan.; St. Charles County, Mo.; Chicago; and Charlottesville, Va., describe forced reductions in service areas, clients and volunteers.
But in Montgomery County, the Chevy Chase group is holding steady — for now.
‘‘I call it the three Ts,” Carroll said. ‘‘Time, talent and treasure; and all three are employed here.”
Compared to Carroll’s $75, the county’s fire and rescue service spends millions a year to fill up its ambulances and fire and ladder trucks, as well as other vehicles used by division chiefs and others.
In fiscal 2008, which ended June 30, the department spent $1.7 million to refuel its 629 vehicles with 491,000 gallons of gasoline.
Fire Chief Thomas W. Carr Jr. has convened a task force to figure out how to save fuel costs. In the meantime, the department has restricted the number of cars eligible for take-home use to employees who are on call or to high-ranking officers.
‘‘We are still putting together a bigger plan to look at the whole deal,” Carr said, ‘‘including, which apparatus is sent to responses, when equipment is left running or turned off and a verity of other opportunities to save without jeopardizing public safety.”
Carr is hoping not to have to ask the County Council for more gas money this fiscal year, which began July 1. Like other county vehicles, the fire department uses fuel purchased in advance by the county at a reduced rate.
The county’s rate for a gallon of unleaded is $3.78. The price of diesel fuel, used in heavy vehicles, such as Ride On buses, construction vehicles and school buses, is locked in at $4.27 a gallon. To save money long term, the county has purchased fuel-saving and hybrid vehicles, including some that use alternative fuels. The county’s cost for a gallon of biodiesel is $4.32.
That works out to $5.9 million in this year’s budget for unleaded gasoline, $8.3 million for diesel, $2.4 million for compressed natural gas and $87,700 for ethanol for county government vehicles; those numbers don’t include fuel costs for the school system, Montgomery College, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission or the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission..
To cut costs in the police department, some urban districts have increases foot, bicycle and Segway patrols, said Montgomery County Police spokeswoman Officer Melanie Hadley. Officers are also urged to park their cruisers and walk through shopping centers. The 4th District station in Wheaton is opening a new bicycle substation, and commanders are encouraging fuel-saving guidelines sent from County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) earlier this year.
Tips included in the guidelines encourage county employees to avoid excessive idling, use air conditioning only when needed, consolidate trips, lighten loads and drive at moderate speeds.
Pressure from higher fuel costs has hit the school system, too.
Last month, the school board gave Superintendent Jerry D. Weast the authority to extend the distance that students have to walk before being eligible for a school bus ride. Students cannot walk farther than a mile to two miles without a bus being made available. Weast must request a waiver from the board before changing the distance.
The school system is projected to spend $7.9 million on fuel this fiscal year. The school board forwarded a request for $5.68 million more for fuel to the County Council, which is expected to act in the fall.
Higher prices have also hurt the county’s efforts to help its residents.
The county’s Department of Health and Human Services turned away 1,600 requests for help in paying utility bills last year because the program ran out of money. That may happen again this year, county officials told a council committee last week.
More than 11,000 applications for assistance are expected, compared to about 9,000 applications last year. The county has already been notified that state funding for its utility assistance program will be cut by $100,000.
Staff Writers Marcus Moore and Margie Hyslop contributed to this report.
