With gas prices continuing to hit record highs, even municipalities are feeling the pinch at the pump.

Greene County Engineer Wade Weiss says eight mainline maintainers are typically on the gravel roads doing various maintenance projects and can go through 50 gallons of diesel fuel per day. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio depending on the price of gasoline, that can add up to $2,000 per day of fuel. Weiss points out combining a fleet of dump truck hauling gravel could easily cost $6,000 per day in fuel alone. 

“So we’re going to try and limit some of that (and) do a little bit more repair work that (will hopefully result) in a little less fuel consumption. Some of the things (such as) cleaning ditch(es) that we’ve had come about in the last couple of years and catch up on some of that work that maybe use a little less fuel.”

Weiss talks about how his budget can be impacted by some of these issues with fuel costs.

“The good thing about the secondary roads department is our balance in our budget, it’s not one of those, if you don’t spend it, you lose it, we actually carry over money. So we’re able to kind of weather the storm on some of this, and we’re struggling like everyone else with the cost.”   

Weiss adds while he hadn’t exactly budgeted for the rising fuel cost issues, he assures the public that if there are jobs and other issues that come up, the secondary roads department will respond and take care of those related issues. According to the latest Fuel Report by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, retail diesel fuel increased by $0.11 this week to an average of $5.44 per gallon, whereas last year the average was $3.06 per gallon of diesel fuel.