CARY ANNOUNCES FUEL CONSERVATION MEASURES

CARY, NC –Due to the continued and potential long-term impacts of Hurricane Katrina and in support of Governor Easley’s call to conserve, the Town of Cary has implanted Phase I actions to preserve fuel supplies.

All essential public services will continue, but non-essential travel throughout the organization is being strictly limited, with employees being directed to suspend or cancel any trips or travel for training or offsite meetings that are not absolutely necessary.  In addition, the Town is reinforcing its commitment to the SmartCommute Challenge program by encouraging all of the Town’s nearly 1,000 employees to carpool, walk, bicycle, or use transit to and from work.

“While every Town employee is always expected to use resources wisely, we all need to be especially conscious of our fuel consumption during this difficult time,” said Town Manager Bill Coleman.

Other elements of the Town of Cary’s Phase I conservation action plan include:

§      Reducing vehicle idling times to the maximum extent possible;

§      Scheduling work and work locations to minimize fuel consumption, including carpooling to worksites and replacing some face-to-face interactions with telephone and/or email contact;

§      Reducing generator testing from once a week to once a month; and,

§      Parking heavy equipment and vehicles on Town-owned property near worksites rather than returning them to the centralized Operations Center at the end of each day.

The Town of Cary has three 10,000-gallon fuel storage tanks that support general operations including fleet vehicles for police and other Town departments as well as most of the Town’s large trucks and equipment.  In addition to the three operations tanks, each of the Town’s six fire stations has a 2,000-gallon diesel tank.  Currently the Town has enough fuel on hand to support emergency fire response for 30-45 days and general operations for about a week, longer as Town staff increase their focus on conservation.  Town officials expect to have storage tanks replenished within the next few days.

“Every effort will be made to keep service to citizens unchanged,” said Coleman.  “Of course, our priority continues to be ensuring that we are always prepared to protect our community’s health, safety, and welfare.”

Town staff will continue to monitor changing conditions and implement additional conservation measures as events warrant.

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