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Commission debates upgrade to county fuel pump system; approves purchase but requests truck pricing
Summary
After an extended discussion about accountability for county fuel usage, commissioners approved purchasing an electronic fuel-management system (about $25,562) to replace manual logs, and asked staff to obtain prices for truck- and tank-mounted units before adding them to the purchase.
Holmes County commissioners debated and ultimately approved purchasing an electronic fuel-management system to replace the current paper gas logs, but asked staff to gather additional prices for truck- and transfer-tank-mounted units before expanding the system to on-board tanks.
County staff explained the county's current process: monthly paper logs collected by road-and-bridge staff are reconciled with finance, a workflow that has generated auditor inquiries when logs are late or inconsistent. A vendor representative, Andy, described a system that requires a PIN and records vehicle number, mileage, pump type (gas/diesel), timestamp and amount; the system transmits transactions to a designated computer or finance office.
"To turn this system on, to turn a pump on, you've got to have a PIN number. You punch in your PIN number," the vendor said, explaining the device sends a record to staff when fueling is complete.
The vendor quoted a base price of $25,562.20 for the majority of the county sites and said cellular service would be included the first year; ongoing service would be about $13.95 per device per month thereafter. The vendor said the system typically pays for itself in a year through improved accountability and reduced fuel loss.
County Coordinator David Corbin expressed support for the idea but recommended tabling until staff could obtain pricing for truck-mounted systems so the county could ensure full accountability for transfer-tank usage on district trucks. "My recommendation is to table it until we can get the price on all these trucks," Corbin said. Several commissioners countered that the county had discussed the issue for years and asked to move ahead while obtaining truck prices concurrently.
A motion to proceed with the purchase from the quoted vendor using funds from an under-spent gas-line budget carried with direction for staff to return with truck-mounted pricing and an implementation plan. Commissioners also discussed whether to include transfer tanks in a first phase and asked the vendor to price a retrofit for district trucks so on-board transfer-tank fueling would be recorded in the system.
The board directed staff to fund the purchase from the road-and-bridge gas line and return with specific quotes for truck installations and any remaining uncovered components.
