TEMPORARY FUEL SURCHARGES

In an effort to recover unexpected fuel costs we apply a small fee to your bill. This fee reflects PAST fuel costs even though the main charges on your monthly or quarterly bill are for future services.

We initially tried to absorb these increases during the first 4 months of 2008 but quickly realized that they were not going to fall and in fact, continued to rise, only to peak in July at almost $5.00/gallon for diesel.

We recognize that current fuel prices have fallen to a 4 year low for unleaded fuels. However, we did not see the diesel fuel market fall back to budget figures until the last week of November.

At this point in time, as a reflection of current diesel market prices, we have discontinued the fuel fee.  However, we do anticipate that fuel prices will rise during the first part of 2009. With the current state of the economy we are doing all we can to keep costs down.

However, fuel has become a very difficult cost to predict, and fuel surcharges have become a necessary part of transportation costs. Should diesel fuel prices exceed $3.00/gallon we will again assess a fuel fee to cover the cost changes.