County Mulls Fuel Station Plan

Saturday, January 12, 2013

— A privately-owned compressed natural gas fueling station at the Benton County Road Department may not materialize in the near future even though officials have shown some interest in the idea.

The Quorum Court’s Transportation Committee heard a presentation from Craig Hull with Fuels and Supplies in Springdale at the committee’s meeting Thursday. The panel voted to have Hull make his pitch to all of the county’s justices of the peace at the next meeting of the Committee of the Whole set for 6 p.m. Feb. 12.

Hull told the committee a privately owned fueling station on county property could serve county vehicles and the public. Hull said the company would be willing to give the county a reduced rate in lieu of all but a nominal lease payment for land. Hull also said the company wants some commitment from the county to at least convert some vehicles from gasoline to compressed natural gas fuel.

“This is fraught with peril, from an economic standpoint, for us,” Hull said. “We’re not asking you for money. We are asking you to convert the county fleet.”

Hull said the station would need to sell about 5,000 gallon-equivalents of fuel daily to be in the black, a figure he didn’t expect it to reach for some years. He said the business plan includes attracting other businesses and industries with sizable vehicle fleets as customers in addition to working with the county and serving the public.

Hull said Northwest Arkansas can take advantage of what he called “a mature industry” in Oklahoma and connect this area to existing or planned stations there, in Fort Smith and Van Buren and in Springfield, Mo.

“This is a logical territory for expansion,” Hull said.

While the justices of the peace forwarded the matter to the Committee of the Whole, questions remain about the process of leasing land for a private business and about the cost effectiveness of converting enough county vehicles to compressed natural gas fuel to make the cost of conversion worthwhile.

County Judge Bob Clinard said the lease question is one he’ll ask County Attorney George Spence to explore. Beyond that, Clinard said, the county has no commitment to the project.

“I’ve only agreed to consider it,” Clinard said. “I do not know if it’s something we can do. How it would benefit the county is in two ways. The county would receive a discount in the fuel as proposed to what they would charge the general public. It’s also in a location where we have a tremendous number of vehicles so we wouldn’t have to drive all over the county to fill up. The paramount question is can we do what they’re proposing? I don’t know why we couldn’t.”

Justice of the Peace Kurt Moore said he wants the lease question answered, and he also wants more information on the feasibility of converting vehicles and the cost to do so.

At A Glance

Test Vehicles

Benton County Sheriff Kelley Cradduck has been authorized to buy 10 Chevrolet Tahoes for his department for patrol vehicles and other uses. Cradduck told justices of the peace he is interested in working with the county on the possible use of compressed natural gas fuel and could convert some of the new vehicles to see if it meets the county’s needs. At Thursday’s Transportation Committee meeting, Craig Hull of Fuels and Supplies said converting the vehicles could cost about $10,000 each.

Source: Staff Report

“I’m not familiar with it ever being done before,” Moore said of the county leasing property to a private business. “This is kind of new ground that’s being plowed. Obviously, you can’t show favoritism to any particular company so probably a bid process would be something we’d have to look at.”

Moore said he wants solid information about the vehicle fleet and costs and benefits of converting to compressed natural gas before the discussion goes much farther.

“The reason we sent it to the Committee of the Whole is so all of the JPs can hear the presentation,” he said. “If they’re interested I’m going to have to see which vehicles will best lend themselves to conversion and what kind of savings the county can see. It’s a little bit premature to say what’s going to happen.”