Escalating fuel prices are beginning to affect the way St. Landry Parish government provides services while diminishing aviation gasoline usage is causing a deficit at the parish airport, according to Parish President Jessie Bellard.

Bellard said on Thursday that routine road maintenance work provided by road crews may be curtailed somewhat due to fuel costs. However other services provided by parish government such as hauling dirt, grading roadways and digging ditches are expected to continue.

Employees that are provided with parish government-owned vehicles Bellard said, are being mandated now to park the vehicles at the Yambilee Building just west of Opelousas and not drive the vehicles home in order to save fuel money.

“Our budget for (gasoline) out of our Road and Bridge Fund will just about be reached pretty soon. That means we will might not be able to do as much as we anticipated with our normal road work,” Bellard said.

In January the Parish Council approved an annual budget that reflects the anticipated spending $59,800 for gasoline out of the Road and Bridge Fund, which is used for the maintenance of road repair equipment and providing related services.

“At this point we have spent about $54,000 of that out of the Road and Bridge budget for (gasoline) fuel. So looking at that number, we are going to be shooting for over $100,000 by the time the end of the (budget) year (on Dec. 31) comes,” Bellard said.

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Heavy machinery operated by parish workers sometimes uses diesel fuel for roads and drainage matters is currently supplied by Guillory Oil Company, according to Bellard.

“We bid the amount out that we intend to use for our diesel, but diesel fuel as anyone knows right now is right at five dollars a gallon,” Bellard said.

According to the annual parish government budget reviewed last week during a Parish Council Finance Committee meeting, $27,591 of a budgeted $46,400 had been spent for diesel fuel from the Road and Bridge Fund by April 30.

The Road and Bridge Fund was showing a $48,214 cash balance nearly 60 days ago, but the same budget also indicated expenditures from that budget were overspent by $777,630.

Much of the revenue in the Road and Bridge account comes from Evangeline Downs slot machine funding and state-provided Transportation Fund money.

This year parish government budgeted $1.18 million for the gambling revenues and $690,300 from the Transportation Fund.

Bellard said in order to relieve the budget from the stress of fuel prices he plans to become more creative with the budget.

“The Parish Charter gives me the option of using line item powers, so we are looking at the budget now and going through the budget line by line in order to move money around and deal with the high fuel prices,” said Bellard.

Bellard estimates that parish government owns at least 10 trucks and SUVs that are normally used daily by employees.

In a revised plan to save fuel costs, Bellard said he has told workers who use vehicles for parish government business, to now park the vehicles at the Yambilee Building.

“We are not allowing our workers to take the vehicles home anymore unless these employees are on call. Some of the work crew is on call 24 hours, so they can take (vehicles) home,” Bellard added.

Finance Chairman Wayne Ardoin said during a Thursday interview that he plans to request the number and names of parish government employees who are driving parish-owned vehicles.

“I think that would be something we want to know, which is how many vehicles are out there ... them and who the persons are that have them,” said Ardoin.

Bellard said all employees who drive parish-owned vehicles reside inside St. Landry Parish.

“We have a fuel card that we give to our employees for the parish vehicles and that card allows them to purchase gas at discounted rates.  All our gas is purchased at locally-owned businesses. We don’t buy gas for our vehicles at places where the money goes out of state,” Bellard said.

Parish Council member Jerry Red Jr. told Bellard at the Finance Committee meeting there is no reason why any parish government worker should have access to have a vehicle that is driven to residences, unless the worker is on call.

Ardoin and other Finance Committee members questioned Bellard about a $62,629 Airport Budget deficit recorded April 30.

Sale of aviation fuel is the main source of income at the airport, Bellard has told the Parish Council.

The budget shows $197,400 was budgeted for airport fuel sales and 26 percent or $51,395 had been sold to aircraft since Jan 1.

Bellard added that sales of aviation fuel at the parish airport have been lagging due to prices that have jumped to $5.95 a gallon.

“We (parish government) are making $1.25 a gallon on the jet fuel and about 75 cents per gallon for aviation gas on the small planes,” Bellard said at the Finance Committee meeting.

Bellard told the Committee that he still has an estimated $26,000 of aviation fuel on hand that he bought several months ago due to anticipated increased activity by aviators.

“Right now we are seeing that people are not flying as much they used to because aviation fuel has become so expensive. We have been trying to stay competitive with our fuel prices and encourage more purchases at the airport. We have a large surplus (of fuel) right now,” Bellard advised the Committee.