DIXFIELD — It’s been nearly two years since local oil company Hometown Energy was featured in a New York Times article focusing on how people in Maine struggle to heat their homes.

Since then, the company has received more than $100,000 worth of donations and has said goodbye to former owner Ike Libby, who started the company nine years ago with business partner Gene Ellis of Dixfield.

Ellis has taken over Libby’s job, a larger role than he previously held.

“At the time of the New York Times article, I was kind of in the background of things,” Ellis said. “Just recently, after Ike left, I took over.”

In the two years since the New York Times article, Ellis said the atmosphere of the heating oil business has remained the same.

“There’s still a lot of people out there trying to stay warm and get their heating oil,” Ellis said. “The economy certainly hasn’t improved much, in terms of heating oil prices. The prices are way up there again, but the needs of the people remain the same.”

Office Manager Diane Carlton, who was among the employees working at Hometown Energy when it was featured in the Times, said the company was “inundated with calls by residents needing help” after the article came out, though the calls have since slowed down.

“Every now and then, we get calls from people asking for a little extra help, but it’s mostly slowed down,” Carlton said. “Since the money in our account is getting lower, we’re trying to write out one ticket per household.”

Carlton said it’s frustrating when they can’t do more to help a household that is making a repeat call.

“However, we always make sure that we guide them to other avenues,” Carlton said. “If they’ve applied for heating assistance, we’ll help them as much as we can to make sure they get heating oil.”

The donations, which Carlton said peaked in the six-figure range, have dwindled dramatically, though they still get an anonymous donation now and again.

“I still have people coming in and writing a check out to us to place in our account,” Carlton said. “There’s a woman who’s part of a local bowling league, and she cuts us a check every year on behalf of the league.”

“When the article first came out, we were getting donations from people in Italy, people from the West Coast, people from all over the country,” Carlton said. “At the time, it was a complete surprise, but we never expected to get any donations from it. We just thought it was an interview.”

Though things have remained mostly the same in the River Valley, Hometown Energy experienced a major change after Libby left his position.

“Ike had been with the business since day one,” Carlton said. “The job was just too stressful for him, I think. He couldn’t do it anymore. Fortunately, he has other avenues out there, and from what I hear, he’s stress-free now.”

With 2013 coming to an end, Ellis and Carlton agreed that they have a long winter ahead of them.

“It’s been very busy this fall, because of the cold weather,” Ellis said. “We’ve delivered a lot more oil in the last couple of months than we did during the same time last year. The weather has just been a lot colder.”

He added, “If we wanted to, we could sit here right now and write up enough tickets to take care of most of the heating oil issues in the area, but we need to spread it out and prepare for the next few months. It’s only going to get colder.”

mdaigle@sunjournal.com