March 29, 2024

Fueling Union County

Fuel quote from Agriland accepted for 2021

After a debate by representatives from Agriland FS in Winterset and United Farmer’s Coop of Afton, Union County Supervisors chose Agriland to supply fuel to the secondary roads department for FY 2021 at a base cost of $1.985 for No. 2 diesel, $2.235 for No. 1 diesel and $1.755 for gasohol and an additional $.06 and $.04 for diesel additives and cold flow.

Agriland representative Loren Gerleman opened with a statement that fuel additives are not all the same and suggested that the supervisors look at only the base price when making its decision.

Darrin Schlapia of United Farmers countered that the fuel additives that both companies use have been around for a long time.

Tianna Fisher, certified energy specialist for United Farmers, later listed the additives used by United Farmers stating that although the numbers are different — seven versus eight additives used by Agriland — the results are the same. The additives used by United Farmers include the oxidation prevention with the corrosion prevention.

Secondary roads shop foreman Scott Schultz said that he has been using his own additives for the last two years.

“We haven’t had an injector fail since,” Schultz said. “Beforehand we had injectors failing left and right.”

A point of contention in the discussion was the inclusion of the “cold flow” additive to the overall price because it is only used in the winter.

Union County Engineer Zach Gunsolley said that although Gerleman was correct that it wasn’t completely accurate to include it, for budget reasons, he could not leave it out.

“Loren’s right that we don’t run the cold flow all year, so he’s saying it’s not fair to list it there,” Gunsolley said. “For me from a budget perspective, it’s not fair to exclude it because for some parts of the year it’s included so I don’t want to run short.”

Supervisor Ron Riley suggested that they split the cost in half to approximate six months of the year with it and six months without.

With this change in the formula, Agriland edged out Farmers by approximately $1,000 over the course of the year.

Supervisor Rick Friday asked Schultz if he was satisfied with the service provided by Agriland in the past years.

“If something was empty, all I’d have to do is make a phone call and they were there with in three hours or the next morning,” Schultz said.

“You work with this everyday,” Friday said to Schultz. “We trust and respect your opinion.

Due to the volatility of fuel markets, the decision need to be made by the end of the business day. The board reconvened in the afternoon to make a decision after Schultz had time to look more closely at the numbers and do some research into the additives.