With fuel prices rising and expected to top $3 a gallon by spring, public entities are looking at ways to offset the impacts of the increase.

The American Automobile Association reports fuel prices will gradually increase for at least the next few months.

Sedona Fire District Fire Marshal William Loesche said the district, in its budget process last year, anticipated increasing fuel prices.

He said there will be a minor impact with the caveat being the quality of fire service given to residents remaining the same.

Not knowing where fuel prices will end up is the difficult part, and the decreases in operations will be delayed to see how much costs increase, according to Loesche.

“It will impact us like everyone else,” Loesche said. “You have to adjust how you use the product.”

He said the fire district also has an unknown factor, because calls for service could always go up or down at any time.

The district realized unforeseen things happen, which causes changes to occur, Loesche said.

“The bottom line is we still get calls for service,” Loesche said. “We have to do what needs to be done to stay in the confines of the budget.”

Loesche, who is in charge of the fire district’s fleet, said most of its vehicles use diesel fuel, so he has to look at both costs.

He added the Governing Board and administration have yet to talk about the rising fuel costs, and mentioned they have to be realistic.

“I am sure we will have that discussion later this month as the budget gets closer,” he said. “It’s a give-and-take. When something goes up, something has to go down.”

Sedona-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Mike Aylstock said its contract with its transportation provider, Student First, will protect them from any increased costs this year.

In its contract, Student First pays costs associated with student travel, including fuel costs.

“If there is a huge increase, the company may come to us to amend the contract,” he said in talking about increased transportation costs for the 2010-11 fiscal year budget.

Aylstock said the price of fuel for district vehicles is not an issue, because the district has very few vehicles for employees to drive, mentioning most drive their own cars.

The city of Sedona is also adopting a wait-and-see approach.

Assistant City Manager Alison Zelms said if fuel prices reach $3 a gallon, the city would adjust for the increase.

She said what helps the city is it recently reduced its fleet, and could possibly have do so again.

“We will weigh that against the increase,” Zelms said, “We will look at the entire fleet and see what we can do.’

Zelms said another way to save fuel costs involves reducing or having better patterns for police officers patrolling.

At its Tuesday, Jan. 12, meeting, council discussed revising vehicle regulations to formalize vehicle usage, sharing, maintenance and other related policies

Zelms said one issue discussed included eliminating or cutting down city vehicles’ idle time.

She said the impacts to the budget will be examined to find solutions.