It may be warm in July, but area residents are still feeling the pain of the past winter’s heating bills and fear what the future holds.

Edward Ramos of Bedford said he doesn’t know exact figures, but guesses that his bill for natural gas has increased about 50 percent over the past two years.

Ramos heats a 2,200- square-foot home with natural gas, and said he is forced to look at his budget and remove money from other areas.

“We just do less of what we used to do. We don’t travel, or eat out as much, and that’s about it for now,” said Ramos, who said he tried to keep the temperature lower in the house during winter months. “We just wear more layers of clothing. Obviously we’d like to see the prices come down, but we don’t see it happening.”

Dominick Rainone of Bedford uses natural gas to heat his 2,000-square-foot condo, but said he hasn’t felt too much of an increase. On his April bill, Rainone said he paid $97.85, and said during the winter months that bill would probably have been about $20 higher. His most recent bill was down to about $41.

Although he hasn’t felt the increase in heating prices, Rainone said he is lucky to have gas heating his home. “I’ll say I am very lucky to have gas heating,” he said. “People who have oil have been telling me how expensive it is, and how much it’s been hurting their wallets.”

Goffstown resident Carol Clark said her oil prices have tripled what she used to pay. “It’s extremely frustrating. I don’t know what to do. A $300 fill will cost almost $900 and it’s ridiculous,” said Clark. “I wear a sweater or a jacket all winter in the house. It’s awful. I wear an electric blanket to keep warm sometimes as well. I try to conserve any way that I can. I’m a sole owner, so it’s difficult on my income.”

Although summer is just beginning, Clark said she already has an eye on the upcoming cold months.

“I am starting to plan now and putting money aside for oil,” she said. “It’s all got to go to that.”

Lois Hollow and her husband Jim Hollow of Dunbarton use both oil and propane. Last June did a pre-pay purchase for the oil and it cost them $2,000 for their two-story home.

“We have a sunroom that is unheated, and it was cheaper for us to install a free-standing propane stove to heat it, which is why we have both,” said Lois Hollow. “We don’t turn the furnace on right away, we start the propane stove and the goes upstairs to save us a little bit at the beginning of the year.”

Hollow also said the cost of oil has forced them to cut back on traveling and also put off some home upgrades that they had planned on doing.

Local governments feel some pressure Residents aren’t the only ones feeling the crunch of heating oil costs. Bedford Town Manager Russ Marcoux said, the town, like others in the area, are being forced to cope with increasing costs.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Marcoux. “It is a moving target that appears to be beyond unreasonable. We are all at the mercy of the federal government officials who certainly don’t give the appearance of doing anything. There is more talk than action.”

The town pays to heat the town office building, Town Hall, BCTV and the library on oil, while the transfer station and safety complex are heated with propane.

This year the town has spent about $64,000 of its $81,000 budgeted for propane and oil. Marcoux said the town offices and Town Hall buildings are energy inefficient, making it harder to save money in other ways.

“All other utility costs are going up because of fuel costs,” he said. “Just today (July 1), there was an over 6 percent increase in electricity to which we have absolutely no control over. Conserving is only a small part of the solution, and with inefficient buildings it makes it more difficult.”

With the high costs of oil, it can also be difficult to find other areas to scale back on.

“For local government, it is difficult to make any serious dent in the costs for a variety of reasons,” said Marcoux. “Road construction is contingent on vehicles working on site, snow plowing vehicles demand high volumes of fuel, and snow has to be removed, police cars should not patrol less, and all fire and emergency vehicles need to respond to calls.”

Considering the high cost to heat the town’s buildings, Marcoux is not looking forward to when the cold weather rolls in. “This winter is very frightening,” he said.

Oil providers in a tough spot, too
While they are in the moneymaking business, several oil companies in the state have said the through-the-roof prices are not exactly good for business, and are going to pose a problem this winter as they try not to buy too much for deliveries.

“The biggest concerns are the elderly and people on fixed incomes,” said Bill West, manager of the Derry-based Rockingham Oil. “How are they going to come up with that money? They’re going to have to choose between heat and food, and that’s not a good place to be.”

Rockingham Oil’s price is hovering at $4.49 a gallon right now, up more double from the $2.31 the company was selling a gallon for in March 2007. West said they’re still doing pre-buy and budget plans, but won’t set a lock-in price until August.

“For anybody in this industry, the lower the price, the more fuel you sell. But it’s a commodity – everybody needs it,” said West, adding sales are currently down and collections are higher.

George Winslow, manager for City Fuel, which has served Bedford, Manchester and surrounding areas since 1936, said it’s a tough time right now because of the economy.

On June 30, City Fuel in Manchester charged $4.59 per gallon of home heating oil. City Fuel offers a cap program, with a $4.89 ceiling price that will not go over that per-gallon cost. If the price goes down, customers who have signed up for the program, get the lower price.

“We have budget plans for that program, and also have one without a ceiling. It’s a 10-month program and you spread your payment out from July for 10 months,” said Winslow. “I think that is one of the better things people can do. Our fear is that people are not prepared for the cost of heating. A lot of people are going into these programs to spread the cost out.”

The price of oil is a very volatile thing, he said, and dealers have to adjust their price. “Right now, our posted price is $4.59 (per gallon), which is a full $2 more than it was a year ago. Unfortunately, people have to prepare themselves for that when winter comes.”

Fred Fuller Oil Company, one of the largest in the state, is selling oil at $4.59 a gallon right now. In June 2007, said general manager Bill Fuller, the price was $2.20 a gallon.

“People can’t afford to fill their tanks or afford to do any pre-buy or budget plans,” said Fuller, adding the company will still offer both but has yet to lock in a rate.

Viking Oil, based in Candia, usually contracts at a stated price based on next heating season buys, said owner John Mayland. “This year, we sent out a letter to customers saying we have only so much oil, and to call from a price and contract paperwork,” said Mayland. “We sold out in two days at $4.49 a gallon. Now we’re selling at a higher price, $4.74 a gallon.”

Mayland added the company has been careful about buying too much because they’re not sure how much people are going to use.

A lot of customers have told him they’re going to keep their thermostats set extremely low and use space heaters, Mayland said.

– Sarah Lebrun contributed to this story