BUTLER TWP — Police cars, fire trucks and snow plows. No one wants them running out of gas.

So when it became apparent that Butler Township’s 38-year-old fuel storage tanks were taking on groundwater, officials didn’t pause in finding a fix.

The township is choosing to stick with an on-site station that keeps gasoline in underground tanks.

However, municipalities in Butler County deal with fuel needs differently for reasons of economy and convenience.

Butler, which spends under $75,000 on fuel annually, buys fuel at gas stations and uses special cards. Cranberry Township, with a fuel budget of more than $270,000, has a computerized fuel and vehicle maintenance system.

Using multiple tanks

A police car just stopped running one day.

“The mechanic said there was a lot of water in the gas line. That was the first sign that something was wrong,” Butler Township manager Ed Kirkwood said of the township’s storage tanks.

Since 1976, the township has maintained two 4,000-gallon underground fuel tanks at the road department, 214 Butler Road. One tank is for gasoline and one is for diesel.

The township will spend about $67,000 on fuel this year for the police, zoning, road departments, and all township fire departments.

After the police car incident, officials learned the car was reparable but the condition of the gasoline tank was an unknown.

“It’s served us well over the years,” Kirkwood said of the old tanks.

Until it’s excavated, it’s nearly impossible to tell if the fiberglass tanks and tubing are fixable. So based on the age of the tanks, township officials in April chose to have them pumped dry to salvage the existing 32,000 gallons of fuel.

The township commissioners accepted bids for replacements of both tanks. The winning bidder, Keystone Petroleum Equipment of Mechanicsburg, will charge $62,000 for the new 8,000-gallon dual chamber tank, which will arrive in about a month. Another contractor will dig up the old tanks.

At the township’s private tanks, there’s a card reader similar to those at public gas stations. But in this case, the person pumping must slide two cards: One that identifies the driver and another that identifies the vehicle. This is done to track gas usage and to prevent fraud.

Annually, the township accepts the names of companies willing to sell the township fuel. When it comes time to fill the tanks, whichever company has the lowest price gets the call.

Kirkwood said the township prefers the buying program because it is convenient, and the distributors automatically deduct taxes from the bill because townships are exempt from paying tax on gas.

In some of the other buying programs, municipalities pay taxes up front and are reimbursed annually.

“This way I don’t have to keep meticulous records for reimbursement,” Kirkwood said.

Buying in bulk

“It’s convenient,” Jeff Smith of the Butler Council of Government said of members who choose to buy bulk fuel and store it on site. “You’ve got it where your street or maintenance crew is at.”

Smith, who also is the Butler city treasurer, said a recent survey of the COG’s 29 members showed that about half of the responders buy and store fuel. The other half use special cards, similar to a credit card, issued by fuel providers.

According to the survey, the prices paid in both scenarios fluctuate, but generally are close to each other.

Members of the Butler COG are eligible to buy fuel through a bulk savings program organized by the South Hills Area Council of Governments. Cranberry Township uses that program for a savings.

Bidders never lock into a price for a year.

“Gasoline is a volatile commodity,” explained Jason Daily, Cranberry Township director of public works. Instead, the bidders submit what’s called an “adder,” which is the mark up the company keeps for the product and delivery. Almost always the price a municipality pays is on a scale sliding downward as more fuel is bought per delivery.

Township vehicles have three above the ground sites to use: A main fuel island at the public works area and two remote sites. The fuel island has two, 6,000-gallon gasoline tanks and a 4,000-gallon diesel tank.

Employees there enter a vehicle code and an employee code or use a fob to get gas. They also must enter the odometer reading of the vehicle or the hours used by the equipment.

In addition to monitoring fuel usage, the computer at the pumps tells the user if the vehicle is in need of maintenance, such as an oil change, and sends a work order out for the task to be completed.

“It’s very efficient and allows us to keep up on our maintenance,” Daily said.

“It’s more than filling up the vehicle for us. It’s managing the fleet and having that internal control of the fueling process.”

City driving

In the city, officials annually accept gas bids from gas stations.

Butler City Clerk Mindy Gall said it’s possible, likely even, that suppliers farther away would have lower prices. However, it just doesn’t make sense to have a city employee to drive from the city to Cranberry, for example, and back for a price savings.

“The savings would be lost in the drive,” she said.

Since Gall became city clerk in 2008, there’s never been city-owned gas pumps and there’s never been talk about buying them.

Each city official gets a card to use at the pumps. The city then is billed monthly with taxes automatically deducted.

Gall said the invoices and corresponding spread sheets are “pretty detailed,” and they are reviewed by the city and supplier for discrepancies.

“It would be obvious if anyone tried to fill up a personal car,” she said.

Annually, each city department has a budget for fuel use. This year they are: $20,000 to the streets department; zoning is $775; the fire department is $13,000; police is $36,000 and parks is $5,000.

“Police use the most because those vehicles are used 24-7,” Gall said. “This is a relatively small part of our ($7.6 million) budget. The city is only four square miles so the vehicles don’t go that far.”