Brandon puts the brakes on soaring fuel prices

Brandon Twp.- Fuel prices are soaring, but the Brandon School District will be saving money this year on the cost of running their buses after joining a consortium.
The school board approved a resolution at their Sept. 12 meeting to join the 2005 Macomb/Oakland Aggregate Bus Fuel Purchasing Program.
Brandon will be one of 11 school districts working together to purchase fuel at the lowest price possible in an effort to curtail rising fuel costs, says Brandon Superintendent Tom Miller.
School districts in the program seek bids from fuel distributors. A good deal is expected because of the volume of fuel to be purchased. The low bidder this year is Spencer Oil of Detroit, which gave a bid of 1 3/4 cents per gallon over the base OPEC price.
Miller expects to see a savings of $500-$600 the first year for Brandon. He hopes to apply these savings to programs for students.
‘Whatever we can do to curtail costs in this area is more money back in the classrooms,? said Miller. ‘It’s good for the kids.?
There are 35 buses in the Brandon fleet, 29 in regular use, says Betty Martin, Brandon Schools transportation director. Each bus logs on average 10,000 miles a year between regular bus routes, field trips and athletic events. Last year, the district purchased 68,000 gallons of fuel at a cost of $112,000. School districts do not pay all the fuel taxes that the general public pays.
Brandon can drop out of the consortium at any time. Each year, new bids will be taken, but the price is not expected to get better with more schools joining the consortium because the volume of fuel being purchased is already so large.

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