OXFORD – With the cost of heating oil climbing near $2 a gallon early in the season, it pays to have collective buying power.

SAD 17 and SAD 39 and most of the town governments within both of those districts will be paying $1.19 a gallon for No. 2 fuel oil to heat their buildings.

The SAD 17 Board of Directors on Monday accepted the $1.19-per-gallon low bid for tank loads and $1.23 a gallon for smaller deliveries from C.N. Brown Co. of Paris.

Union Oil Co. was the only other bidder, offering a fixed price of $1.63 a gallon.

After the vote, board member Donald Ware jokingly asked Superintendent Mark Eastman if residents could also get in on the $1.19 a gallon deal.

The cash price of home heating oil in central and western Maine ranged Monday from a low of $1.69 to a high of $1.83 a gallon.

Eastman said that although he’s pleased with the C.N. Brown price, it is higher than the 89 cents a gallon the district paid last year for heating oil. In February 2003, the average price for heating oil was $1.64 a gallon.

David Marshall, the district’s buildings and grounds director, said Oxford County government buildings are also covered under the bid, as are the towns of Norway, Paris, Oxford, Otisfield, West Paris, Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner.