H-D takes chance on saving oil costs

During her monthly financial report at the Hillsboro-Deering school board meeting, business administrator Lisa Braiterman reported that she took the opportunity to opt out of paying high prices for heating oil the district locked into when the prices were running high. Provided that oil does not spike upward again, this move could save the district quite a bit of the cost of oil for the year.

Braiterman said she had originally locked into a price of 3.99 a gallon, but that the supplier had offered to let the district out of the lock-in. The supplier will now allow the district to buy at the gallon price on any day of delivery, plus 50 cents a gallon. With prices floating down around two dollars and change now, that could save the district a dollar a gallon in oil for deliveries for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends on the last day of June.

But whatever relief this new deal provides, a good deal of oil has already been bought at the original lock-in price. At both the elementary and high schools, the oil tanks have a capacity of 15,000 gallons apiece. This is about half what those schools need in a year. But the middle school, the newest building out of the three, has such a small tank that it needs weekly delivery.

“Don’t even talk to me about that,” Braiterman said, pointing out that the middle school is also a shelter for the town. With only a week’s heating oil, the shelter could only keep people warm for a week in a state of emergency.

The entire district purchases an average of 60,000 gallons of heating oil a year.

Board member Rich Pelletier asked if it would not be more practical to install a large capacity tank in the middle school and buy oil in summer when the price is down. Braiterman agreed, but explained that the cost of installing the tank was prohibitive, being perhaps in the tens of thousands.