Clayton to get gas delivery Wednesday

Clayton County narrowly escaped a public safety crisis and will be able to respond to every emergency call after all, thanks to a delivery of 9,000 gallons of fuel expected Wednesday morning.

The state tracked down gas for Clayton from Mansfield Oil Tuesday afternoon.

“I called and begged,” said Jill Stuckey, director of the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority’s Energy Innovation Center.

Stuckey has helped locate gas for several local governments and schools systems, but none were as extreme as Clayton’s situation, she said Tuesday.

Most metro counties reported having sufficient supplies at midweek.

But several school systems have run into fuel supply trouble, according to Bert Brantley, spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue.

At one point Tuesday, rumors ran through some school systems that Perdue would cancel classes around Georgia on Thursday and Friday to save fuel — but Brantley denied that. On Friday, 18 Georgia school systems sought state help.

“We’re monitoring the supplies,” Brantley said. “We’re working incredibly hard in helping them find supplies.”

Clayton school officials said they have plenty of gas to run the district’s 727 buses and support vehicles.

As of late Monday, the Clayton County government had only enough gas to last throughout the weekend, County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell said. “Public safety will be our last restriction,” Bell said.

Wade Starr, who oversees 800 vehicles as Clayton’s fleet director, said Clayton was nearing that point until this delivery.

“Public safety is one of our main concerns,” Stuckey said. “We don’t want a fire truck to say ‘we can’t get there because we’re out of fuel.’ “

Clayton officials said they will continue to conserve to make sure every 911 call is answered. Today’s delivery also allows the county to continue its Meals on Wheels program for senior citizens.

Last week, Bell ordered police to stop using county vehicles for off-duty jobs, except for patrols at school sporting events and other after-school activities. He also ordered county workers to stop mowing grass.

Governments throughout the Metro area have also implemented conservation plans, although none seem to be as stringent as Clayton’s.

• Cobb County’s municipal fleet gas supplies are at 75 percent, with fuel shipments coming in as scheduled. County spokesman Robert J. Quigley said employees are being encouraged to conserve as much fuel as possible while traveling on county business.

• Gwinnett County has had a slight decline in operations, but is not near a crisis stage, said Michael Lindsey, fleet management director. “There’s been a slowdown, but there hasn’t been a shortage,” he said. “We’ve had enough fuel to do what we need to do.”

The county purchases fuel in bulk for its fleet of 2,700 pieces of equipment, which includes fire trucks, police cars, trucks and buses for Gwinnett and Buford schools.

• Fulton County is in “very good shape” with more than 50 percent capacity, said Willie Hopkins, Fulton’s general services director.

The county also has an emergency reserve locked away in the event that the gas shortage drags on several more weeks, he said.

• Fayette County has about a three-week fuel reserve, said Capt. Pete Nelms, Fayette’s emergency management coordinator. He credits a comprehensive plan the county devised after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which included tripling the county’s residual fuel capacity and a fuel-sharing system among the municipalities.

“Call this ‘lessons learned,’” Nelms said. “We learned our lessons well after Katrina.”

• Henry County was also in good shape as of Tuesday, said spokeswoman Julie Hoover-Ernst, with another gas shipment expected Wednesday. The county benefited from the federal rules waiver to allow gas with a higher sulfur content into the Atlanta area.

Staff reporters John Hollis, Kay Powell, David Bennett, Kent Miles and Pat Fox contributed to this story