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. Goffstown resident Carol Clark said her oil prices have tripled from 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 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.

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.”

The price of natural gas has increased as well. Edward Ramos of Bedford said he doesn’t know exact figures, but guesses that his bill 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 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 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.”

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.

In 2007, Goffstown officials spent $28,829 to heat the library, three fire stations and the Parks and Recreation building, when only $20,713 was budgeted.

“Other things didn’t get purchased. We try to manage within the bottom-line budget,” said Goffstown Town Administrator Susan Desruisseaux. “Sometimes, if you have a vacancy in a department, that didn’t get filled you can find some money. You’re always monitoring that.”

So far in 2008, Goffstown has spent $12,947 out of its $27,537 heat budget for the buildings, and Desruisseaux said the high prices are frustrating.

“It’s difficult. The gasoline and diesel are also affecting us. We’re trying to take energy conservation methods, but we’re still going to be over spent,” said Desrisseaux, who also said the town is in the process of doing energy studies for some of the town buildings.

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 prebuy 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.

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.

Like Rockingham, 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.

– Staff writer Sarah Lebrun contributed to this story.