Cities trying out innovative ways to slash costly fuel consumption

Workers in Eagan's parks are using unclaimed bicycles from the police department to haul trailers full of hand tools, weed trimmers and trash containers onto the trails for their chores.

Human power has become an innovative way of cutting the cost of fueling and maintaining the dump trucks the city used to use.

Hit with high fuel costs, cities and counties all across the south metro are trying to cut fuel use in any way possible, including consolidating road trips and turning off engines rather than idling.

Among the changes:

• Farmington may put one police officer on a bicycle this summer, using human pedal power to trim down gasoline bills.

• Savage is telling cops to park the car and get out and walk when certain kinds of public-safety hotspots are identified: an area, for instance, in which vandalism is becoming a problem.

• Dakota County is using global-positioning technology to help social workers and others string together appointments in the most fuel-efficient way.

Cities use fuel in lots of things they do, from mowing parks to scraping snow from streets, but police patrols are a frequent target for cuts.

In Eagan, for example, officers are being told to scale back the number of miles they patrol to 70 miles per shift, only driving beyond that if necessary.

Farmington expects one officer on bike patrol for five hours a day to save $750 in gas by October, a modest sum. But it will also help police interact more with residents, said police chief Brian Lindquist.

"It gets the copper out of the car," he said. The bike he'll request the city to buy on Monday will also be great for cracking down on illegal use of fireworks and other violations that tend to take place in parks and other places squad cars can't drive.

"The bikes are rather stealthy," he said. "You don't hear them coming, you don't see them coming, and all of a sudden, there they are."

The cost of fuel adds up fast. In Dakota County, diesel fuel costs are nearly $110,000 over budget already this year, and gasoline costs are nearly $30,000 over budget, as of May 31, the latest figures available. The county had budgeted $531,297 for the year. But by the end of May it had used nearly $348,000 because of a snowy winter and skyrocketing costs.

Employees are being urged to take part in teleconferences or carpools, and the county's fleet now includes three hybrid trucks. Road-crew trucks are being equipped with power-conserving LED lights, including for use in arrow boards that direct drivers around construction sites. The LED lights use so little power that the trucks can be shut off while using the lights, rather than idling, officials say.

The Dakota County Sheriff's office, as it replaces vehicles, is buying more mid-sized sedans instead of larger vehicles, including SUVs. And the city of Lakeville may buy hybrid cars to replace half a dozen of its city vehicles next year.

In Eagan, officials project that the rising prices will increase the city's gasoline costs by 207 percent from 2005 to 2009. For diesel, the projected increase is 235 percent, said Tom Garrison, city spokesman.

"Right now, we're holding our own in terms of staying close to budget," he said, but added that it's hard to predict how high prices might go and what that will mean for the city. It's possible, even with reduced fuel consumption, Garrison said, that Eagan might dip into a contingency fund to cover rising fuel prices this year.

So officials are trying to find less expensive ways to deliver services, run up fewer miles on city vehicles, and reallocate resources after saving money in other areas of the budget.

The city's Parks and Recreation Department is rigging unclaimed bicycles from the police garage so that they can pull the small trailers, at a cost of about $225 per unit, Garrison said. "That's a heck of a lot less than the cost of fueling and maintaining a dump truck," he said.

So far, one of the rigs is operating, and a cost-conscious Mayor Mike Maguire rode it at the head of the city's July 4th parade.

City Council members will consider buying smaller vehicles, perhaps even hybrids, Garrison said. And parks workers are not mowing back as far around trails and parks, to help save fuel.

Eagan has long been trying to use less fuel in policing. In 2002, Eagan police vehicles used 87,000 gallons of fuel. By 2007, that number had dropped to 69,000 gallons as officers did less idling and took other measures.

In Rosemount, officials allocated $160,000 for fuel when they put together the city's 2008 budget -- $7,000 less than the city ended up spending last year. Now, the city is trying to make up some of the money by doing everything from switching to more efficient light bulbs to carpooling.

"If there's a water main break," said finance director Jeff May, "they don't have four guys in four vehicles going to the site."

Joy Powell • 612-673-7750 Sarah Lemagie • 612-673-7557