FARMINGTON – A one-pump fuel system with multiple keys is expected to save some entities in Franklin County money. The savings will be passed onto taxpayers and users.

The town of Farmington, Franklin Memorial Hospital and the Sandy River Recycling Association have joined with SAD 9 to bulk buy diesel fuel.

The town, hospital and recycling association have locked into a price of 89 cents per gallon for diesel fuel for the next year.

The nine-town school system will pay 88 cents a gallon and charge the other users 1 cent for each gallon for administrative fees bringing it to 89 cents a gallon.

The pump is located near SAD 9’s bus garage adjacent to the Mount Blue Middle School. SAD 9 Transportation Director David Leavitt will report how much each entity uses to appropriate authorities. The users include the town’s Highway Department and Fire Rescue Department and FMH’s LifeStar Ambulance. Each department has its own key to the system, which cannot be used in any other slot.

The school district uses 80,000 gallons, town 35,000 gallons and the hospital uses 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually.

The school district has capitalized on bulk buying and getting the best price through Synernet, a nonprofit consortium of hospitals, for a few years.

Leavitt said the district’s cooperation to allow the town and other entities to use its pumps and tank is good community relations, which in turn helps the taxpayers.

On Tuesday night, a highway dump truck, an ambulance and a fire truck had pulled near the pump with representatives to celebrate the collaborative effort. Currently the town pays a floating price based on wholesale prices in Portland with a half-cent premium per gallon, Town Manager Richard Davis said.

Gov. John Baldacci sent a letter to Farmington Selectman Stephan Bunker, who initiated the effort, informing him he couldn’t make the celebration but applauded the effort to “develop an inter-governmental regional approach for motor fuel purchase in the greater Farmington area.”

“Your agreement to consolidate the number of diesel tank locations through sharing one central point for municipal, school, highway and hospital vehicles offers many great potentials for the area and its taxpayers,” Baldacci wrote. “Through collaboration you will be able to leverage a better per gallon price on diesel than before, thus saving all involved much needed resources.”

Baldacci also stated that “as you know, since my inauguration I have encouraged local officials to work toward this type of ‘bottom-up’ approach to regionalization. This reinvention of government is the kind of thinking we need if we are going to solve our state’s budgetary problems and offer real relief to property owners.”

“This was just an opportunity for me to think outside the box,” Bunker said. “I took Gov. Baldacci’s suggestion to heart.”

Bunker said he would pursue a similar joint effort to buy gas.

[email protected]