City staff hears pitch to replace 33-year-old municipal fueling system with leased managed service

City staff heard a presentation April 14 from Wayland (city staff) and Jason Stalker, retail fuels manager for New Century, on a proposal to replace the city of Boone’s aging in-ground fueling system with a leased, managed fuel system.

Stalker told the council the city’s current underground tanks are 33 years old and “it does start to get to the point once you break through 30 years, there’s an environmental concern,” and said parts for the existing fleet management hardware are no longer available. He described New Century’s proposed installation as above-ground, double-wall tanks that meet UL 142 standards and an Italian “main finity b” smart fuel system that uses key fobs, PINs or a smartphone app to restrict and track fueling by department, vehicle and employee.

The proposal outlined by Stalker included a 4,000-gallon diesel tank and a 2,000-gallon gasoline tank placed on the east side of the city’s lot inside a fenced area, and a monitoring package for tank levels, fuel quality sampling, and annual inspection reports. Stalker added the vendor can provide an option to fix annual fuel price exposure by contracting a fixed price for a specified volume of fuel, calling that “an option” rather than a requirement.

Wayland said city staff would meet with Fire Chief Adam and other fleet stakeholders to finalize operational and liability details before returning a recommendation to council. No formal procurement action or contract award occurred at the meeting. Council members asked for additional detail on liability, insurance and how bulk fuel users would be accommodated; staff said they expect to return with a recommendation after those conversations.

Why it matters: The city’s tanks are past typical life-expectancy thresholds for underground storage, and replacing or outsourcing fueling affects environmental liability, daily fleet operations, and how the city budgets for fuel and equipment.

Speakers quoted in this article are identified in the meeting transcript and during the presentation.