Rising fuel costs in Bow, Hopkinton and Contoocook

Bow Editor — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:47:00 GMT

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.

Contoocook resident Roland Dubois heats his home with oil, and locked his price in last year at $2.60 a gallon.

“I am glad that I am, as we speak, adding insulation to the house,” said Dubois.

I have no idea how much it will cost this year, but we are hoping that quite a bit of renovation will help.”

Lois Hollow and her husband Jim Hollow of Dunbarton use both oil and propane. Last June, the Hollows took part in a pre-pay purchase program for the oil and it cost them $2,000 for their twostory 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.

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.”

The price of natural gas has increased as well.

Local governments feel some pressure

Homeowners and town officials are both feeling the repercussions of rising heating costs, as both groups are forced to look inside their budgets to make up for higher than usual prices.

With about half the year passed, Hopkinton has already gone over its budgeted fuel for the Town Hall.

For this year, officials budgeted $4,400 for the Town Hall, and have already spent $4,600 due to the rising costs, something interim Town Administrator Bob Veloski said the town will need to make up for in other portions of the budget.

“It’s frustrating for everybody. Every time you look, the cost of oil has jumped again,” said Veloski. “We’re trying to cut back in other areas to offset that so we don’t have a deficit.”

The budgets in the other town buildings for heat are half or more than half spent, having gone through $4,300 of the allotted $6,000 for the Public Works building, $6,000 out of $10,000 for the fire station and about $2,400 of the $3,300 for the tax collector’s office with more cold weather left in the year.

“It’s having a significant effect on all of the towns,” said Veloski. “We still have a significant portion of the winter to look at still.”

Last year Hopkinton went over budget for heating in all of the buildings, but only by a few hundred dollars in each case. For the 2007-08 fiscal year, ending June 30, Bow budgeted $92,400 for heating fuel, but spent $107,164, said Bob Levan, Bow’s finance director.

That amount provides heat for Town Municipal Building, police station, Department of Public Works, the Fire Department and Bow Community Building, which also houses the Recreation Department. For 2008-09, the town budgeted $114,300.

“It makes it difficult when costs increase unexpectedly by a significant amount,” said Levan. “We have to find ways to keep up with our bottomline budget. It’s not just the cost of heat and energy, but vehicle fuel and electricity. Whatever happens, we have to find ways to adapt to it. We’ve managed to cut in other areas.”

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.”

Ricky Barnard, manager of Contoocook Valley Fuel, said the oil prices aren’t good for anyone, oil companies included.

Right now, Barnard said his company, a family-owned and operated business since 1961, is selling 150 gallons of oil at a discounted price of $4.59 per gallon. The company has a 100- gallon purchase minimum, and is selling 100 to 149 gallons for $4.69 per gallon.

Contoocook Valley is still going to offer pre-buys and budget plans, but won’t set a price until the end of July or August.

“I’m hoping it will get better. Some people say it will go higher, and others say it will come down and the bubble will pop,” said Barnard.

He added the nation’s reliance on foreign oil sources should be actively diminished.

“I think we should be allowed to drill inside the United States, and we need to update the refineries,’ said Barnard.

Viking Oil, based in Candia, sold out of the oil it was selling at $4.49 a gallon in two days, according to owner John Mayland.

“We usually go out with a contract at a stated price based on next heating season buys,” said 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. We sold out in two days at $4.49 a gallon. Now we’re selling at a higher price, $4.74 a gallon,” Mayland said.

Mayland added the volatile market is making it hard to determine how much he should get for his customers. “We’ve been very careful about buying too much. We’re not sure how much people are going to use,” he said.

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

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.

Money delays charter school opening

Bow Editor — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:38:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

HOPKINTON/BOW – For nearly three years of work by Bow, Hopkinton and Kearsarge Regional school district superintendents, the Crossroads Learning Community Charter School in Contoocook was awarded official charter status.

Though the school was recognized by the New Hampshire Board of Education in December, a problem receiving grant money from the state will prevent the school from its expected opening in January.

Jan Williamson, the agency supervisor for NFI North, the organization running the school, said she hopes the charter school can still open this fall when school reconvenes.

“The grant was larger than we thought in terms of the application and filling that out,” Williamson said. “As far as how much money we’ll receive in terms of the budget, we will need outside funding and determine where we are going to go with this.”

The problem is not exclusive to the Contoocook charter school, however. New Hampshire’s federal grant for charter schools runs out in June and, Williamson said, the state cannot reapply until October, potentially leaving all Granite State charter schools to figure out their own funding for several months.

“We just want to make sure when we get into this we have our budget figures and our money in order, and make sure we are going in the right direction before we move forward,” she said. “We’re in the process of applying for the charter grant money from the state and we’ll be meeting with superintendents from the three school districts next week to determine funding.”

Moreover, Thomas Brennan, superintendent of the Kearsarge Regional School District, said he will meet with the commissioner of the New Hampshire Board Board of Education for clarification on the state’s fiscal obligation.

Still, the school, which may still open in the fall, received its charter at a New Hampshire Department of Education meeting in December, when Chairman David Ruedig also awarded charters to the New Hampshire Equestrian Academy Charter School in Rochester and Surry Village Charter School in Surry – bringing the state total to 12 charter schools.

A press release from the New Hampshire Center for School Reform describes the new charters as “... creating examples of entrepreneurial schools that provide new opportunities for New Hampshire public school students and planning budgets at 40 percent less than the statewide average.”

The plan is for Crossroads Learning Community Charter School to enroll up to 20 students from the three school districts the first year and work its way to 40 students the fifth year. Those enrolled will come from grades 7 through 12. The curriculum is intended for students that “the current system cannot reach, despite best efforts,” and will design individualized learning programs for students.

“I believe that for many years we, as superintendents and school districts throughout the state, have struggled with identifying where students who struggle in school can go – kids who are dropping out or who aren’t engaged in a typical school setting – we want somewhere for these students to go,” said Brennan.

Unlike other charter schools, the new Contoocook facility will attempt to close the gap and maintain communication between the charter school and the homeschool, and allow students to go back to their schools in some cases with someone from the charter school shadowing them.

Moreover, the charter school will also offer a professional development curriculum for teacher from the Bow, Hopkinton and Kearsarge school districts to receive training on working with different types of students.

More information on New Hampshire charter schools, can be obtained from www.nhschool reform.org.

Bow News : Contoocook

Rising fuel costs in Bow, Hopkinton and Contoocook

Money delays charter school opening