NATCHEZ — It doesn’t take a mathematician to realize that the numbers just don’t add up.

At the beginning of the last fiscal year, the Natchez Board of Aldermen budgeted $240,000 for gas for city cars in the public works department, police and fire departments, planning, inspection and recreation departments.

So far, the city has spent $181,000 in gas and has to stretch $59,000 over the remaining months, a feat that is bound to prove impossible.

Citywide, an average of $23,000 is spent per month on fuel.

According to City Clerk Donnie Holloway, once the money runs out from the fuel fund, the city will have to start pulling from the general fund, which could have some serious implications.

“Hopefully our sales tax will stay strong and we’ll finish our budget year in the black,” Holloway said.

Fluctuations in gas prices are normal, but Holloway said the board never dreamed there would be a steady, unwavering incline when they budgeted last year.

“We weren’t thinking $4 a gallon,” he said. “Back then it was $2.50, $2.60 a gallon.”

Holloway said as the time nears to establish next year’s budget, the city should probably budget “at least” $5 a gallon.

Last week, city officials traveled to a Mississippi Municipal League conference, where high gas prices were a hot topic.

Holloway said a few suggestions were offered during the conference.

“This was a big discussion but nobody has really taken any steps at the present time,” he said.

Holloway said one option that was discussed was to cut back some departments’ work weeks to four days a week.

Certainly not applicable to the fire and police departments, he said this could only be done for departments who could afford to lose a day.

To compensate the payroll, those who worked only four days would work 10-hour days.

Another option would be not to allow some departments to take vehicles home.

City Building Inspector Paul Dawes said he does not favor this idea.

The inspection department has four cars, all of which are taken home by the employees.

“We do get called out on occasion for weekends and after hours so we are required to take them home so we can perform that service,” he said. “It would certainly dampen some of the services we provide.”

He said mileage is watched carefully to make sure the cars aren’t being used recreationally.

Recreation Director Ralph Tedder said his department can’t afford to cut back on vehicle use either.

“If we decrease (the use of vehicles) it’s going to reduce services and the quality of services,” he said.

Essentially, golf course and ballpark grass has to be cut and golf carts have to be used. There’s no way around it, he said.

Police Chief Mike Mullins said his department uses on average 928 gallons of gas per week, paying $3.64 a gallon, which rounds out to $3,380.

He said he’s willing to explore options to reduce fuel consumption.

“We have not bought the large 8-cyclinder unmarked vehicles since I was the chief,” he said.

Moving from 8-cylinders to six has been helpful and so has cutting back on leaving the car constantly running.

“We used to leave the engines idling but with the new fuel injected engines, it’s more efficient to turn the car off,” Mullins said. “In older cars, it took more gas to crank the motor.”

Mayor-elect Jake Middleton said he’s bouncing around a few ideas in his head but plans to talk to all of the department heads about what to do.

Right now though, he said he is thinking about downsizing vehicles and making sure that the trips the employees are making in the cars are organized.

“We’re going to have to learn to work in grids, if you will,” Middleton said instead of needlessly running all over town.

Adams County

County Administrator Cathy Walker said she has not seen anything take a toll on the county’s budget the way the cost of fuel has.

“It’s hurting us,” she said. Walker said the county’s two biggest gas expenditures are the Adams County Road Department and the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.

Supervisor Darryl Grennell said the fuel problem is particularly difficult to deal with because the county cannot control the cost of fuel nor can they eliminate the services that account for majority of the fuel usage.

“We can’t get around that,” he said.

Grennell said when the last budget was adopted there were no indicators to say the cost of fuel would go as high as it has.

In 2007 when the current budget was adopted, Walker said the ACSO was allocated approximately $108,000 for fuel, they have currently spent over $114,000 for this year.

The road department has a gas and diesel budget.

They were budgeted for approximately $60,000 for gas and $105,000 for diesel.

Walker said the road crew has spent 88 percent of their gas budget and 103 percent of their diesel budget as of last week.

Adams County Deputy Maj. Charles Harrigill recently estimated the sheriff’s office would exceed their fuel budget by as much as $30,000.

And while the new budget will not go into effect until October, Grennell said it is difficult to tell how much damage will be done by ever escalating fuel prices.

While the supervisors have not taken any official budgetary action yet, Walker said money will inevitably have to be moved from other areas in the budget to compensate for fuel costs.

In an effort to monitor fuel usage the supervisors recently passed a resolution mandating more stringent documentation for those using the county’s credit cards to purchase gas.

“Our consumption has not changed,” Walker said. “It’s just the price.”

To minimize the way fuel is used. Supervisor Mike Lazarus said the board will examine the way the road department uses its vehicles.

Lazarus also said the board plans to discuss possible purchase of smaller trucks to service the road crew.

But Lazarus said he believes the trucks the county uses could be hard to sell since they use so much fuel.

Concordia Parish

The Concordia Parish Police Jury is on a yearly calendar, so their fiscal year began in January, and six months into the fiscal year, they have already begun to feel the pinch when it comes to the price of gas.

The jury had to vote to amend its budget to compensate for rising fuel costs earlier this year, from $120,000 allocated for fuel to $225,000, Police Jury Secretary-Treasurer Hazel Dickson said.

The problem has likely not been addressed for the last time, Police Jury President Melvin Ferrington said.

“We are probably going to have to make another adjustment before the end of the year,” Ferrington said.

In Vidalia, the rising cost of fuel does not directly affect a single line in the budget, City Manager Ken Walker said.

Instead, fuel — which is bought by contract — is grouped under the umbrella line item of “supplies.”

That way, in the event funds are needed, monies can be transferred from the appropriate funds, Walker said.

But that doesn’t mean that the town isn’t implementing some cost-saving solutions, including requiring town employees — with the exception of supervisors — to park their vehicles instead of taking them home.

Likewise, at the Vidalia Police Department police chief-elect Tapper Hendricks has said all non-patrol officers will be required to leave what were take-home cars at the station to save gas.

“In 2005, the police department’s fuel bill was $46,000,” Hendricks said. “Last year, it was $82,000.”

That means the two large Dodge pickup trucks the department has are going to the city for the mayor to decide what to do with, and other car inventory is likely to be retired, he said.

But there is another tool Hendricks is considering, something he said is a growing national trend — gas powered golf carts.

Though patrol officers will still be assigned a patrol unit, the six-gallon tank golf carts will help the city save approximately $80 a day for police business like neighborhood drive-throughs and late-night businesses checks, Hendricks said.

“Not only will that serve to make personal communication between the officers and the citizens easier, it will save gas,” he said.