Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Christiansburg Police officer Chris Wiscarson laughs with David Crowder as he changes his brakes in a parking lot at Radford Street and Eanes Drive in Christiansburg. The department has implemented foot patrols, in part, to save gas.

Law enforcement officials are front and center among those feeling the pinch from rising gas prices.

But, they say, it's difficult for them to make significant changes to their departments to reduce fuel use.

You can't patrol an entire city or transport a prisoner on a mountain bike. And you can't ask an officer to risk his or her safety to save a few bucks.

However, the Radford and Christiansburg police departments are two agencies that say they have made what they consider relatively small changes that could save a ton of money in the long run.

"Every dollar I can save is a dollar the city can use somewhere else," Radford Police Chief Don Goodman said. "They're my tax dollars, too, so I want them to be used efficiently."

Goodman said office staff and detectives are now working four 10-hour shifts each week instead of five eight-hour shifts.

"Those vehicles we have parked one day a week," he said.

The shifts rotate so all staff members and detectives aren't off at the same time, he said.

"We will always have people here to do the job," he said.

Goodman said he is encouraging officers to park their cars and walk when they can or to use their bicycles.

Also, the vehicles taken home by detectives have been reassigned depending on where they live. Detectives who live outside the city and have to drive farther if they are called in are driving the more fuel-efficient vehicles, Goodman said.

The Christiansburg Police Department has increased foot patrols to the downtown area and increased the use of bike patrols.

Those measures not only cut back on the use of patrol cars, Maj. Dalton Reid said, but also promote public relations and allow officers to target areas such as the New River Valley Mall and other shopping centers.

The department is moving several patrol officers to the daylight shift, allowing them to handle walk-ins and phone-related services without having to drive to the agency and then back to their assigned area of the town.

Also, Reid said, the department is assigning two officers to a car when it's feasible.

The Christiansburg department also has limited take-home vehicles to those that are used primarily by supervisors and members of the emergency response team. Before, all officers who lived in the town were allowed to take their vehicles home.

"The idea is to conserve fuel as much as possible while still supplying adequate services to the community," Reid said.

When localities made their budgets last June, regular unleaded gasoline averaged $2.96 a gallon, according to AAA. Since then, prices have continued to rise, forcing localities to adjust their fuel budgets to cover shortfalls. Below are the 2007-08 fiscal year gas budget compared with what each locality actually spent on gas during that time and what each budgeted for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which started Tuesday.

* The town was unable to provide actual gas expenses. Figures shown are the street department equipment operation and repair budget, which includes fuel, tires, repairs and other vehicle expenses.

Localities try to let up on the gas

Shaozhuo Cui | The Roanoke Times

Wayne Sarrge of the Blacksburg Transit fuels a BT bus.

Put simply, local governments use a lot of fuel.

Police and sheriff’s deputies keep sedans on the roads 24/7. Fire trucks, rescue vehicles and ambulances must idle while on the scene of an emergency. Garbage trucks and school buses don’t get great mileage, but they do provide vital services.

According to a survey conducted by the International City/County Management Association — a professional organization for town, city and county managers — of 474 member governments surveyed in May, one-third reported fuel cost increases from 11 percent to 15 percent since January. Twenty-nine percent of governments surveyed reported fuel costs rose 16 percent to 20 percent.

But putting measures in place to help conserve fuel does work, even if the rising cost of regular unleaded and diesel gasoline continues to climb. The city of Radford, for example, used some 76,000 gallons of gasoline and 67,000 gallons of diesel in 2006, city spokeswoman Becky Hawke said. Since implementing fuel-saving strategies, consumption has dropped to 66,000 gallons of gasoline and 64,000 gallons of diesel a year. Even with the reduction in consumption, the city’s fuel bill has gone up.

Here’s what some of the New River Valley’s localities are doing these days to save fuel and, officials hope, money:

Blacksburg

Uses a B20 biodiesel blend, which reduces carbon emissions by an estimated 8 percent, in the majority of town vehicles.

Has purchased seven hybrid Ford Escapes and several Ford Fusions. The Fusions are rated by the Environmental Protection Agency as “Smartway” vehicles for fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions.

Formed a work group of the town’s emergency management system focused solely on transportation to evaluate and recommend fuel-saving strategies.

Blacksburg Transit

Testing B20 biodiesel mix in two buses and considering switching the entire bus fleet to biodiesel later this summer. Researching the purchase of electric hybrid, compressed natural gas and fuel cell buses.

Exploring the addition of neighborhood route service in the Christiansburg and Blacksburg areas based on requests for increased services. Ridership on both Blacksburg Transit and the SmartWay buses have increased by about 8 percent since 2007.

Christiansburg

Working on an idling policy, prohibiting government employees to leave a vehicle running for more than five minutes.

Police have changed shifts, put two officers in one squad car and increased bicycle and foot patrols.

Montgomery County

Encouraging employees to consolidate trips and carpool.

Discontinued the county’s bookmobile service June 1.

Take-home vehicles are limited to personnel who are on-call at all times, such as law enforcement.

Montgomery County schools

Schools will need to choose field trips more wisely.

Administrators looked at consolidating bus routes but found that consolidation would put some children on buses for more than an hour a day.

Schools are putting girls and boys on same buses to some sporting events. They had ridden separately before.

Pulaski County

Take-home vehicles are only given to emergency responders.

Creating a mileage improvement award program for drivers with greatest percentage improvement in fuel economy.

Purchasing hybrid vehicles and reducing the size of vehicles purchased.

Set a goal of 15 percent reduction in fuel usage during 2008-09.

Considering using GPS technology to map shorter routes.

Pulaski County schools

For in-county field trips, students paid $1 each. They paid $2 for out-of-county trips.

Bus drivers to keep idling to a minimum and getting to schools as soon as possible.

“We just don’t run them any more than we have to,” said Ron Nichols, director of transportation.

Radford

Considering a modified work schedule for employees. Because many city positions are more public-service and customer-service oriented or involve manual labor at a specific location, telecommuting is not an option for many people.

Using carpooling when using city vehicles, not completing jobs that aren’t necessary, not mowing as often or as many places and increasing police bike patrols.

Purchased first hybrid vehicle and the city is sending its old fleet to surplus as quickly as possible, replacing older vehicles with fuel-efficient ones.

Radford schools

Created a 1-cent-per-mile reimbursement that sports teams must pay to attend camps. That way, money doesn’t come from activity or transportation funds but from athletic funds.

Asked schools to take field trips closer to home.