VALPARAISO | By the end of May, the city's public works department had spent its entire fuel budget for the year. This year's record rise in fuel costs saw other departments have similar problems, but the police will finish the year under budget.

The public works department, which has the city's biggest fuel budget for everything from street sweepers and garbage trucks to snowplows, spent a total of $266,926 for fuel through the end of November. In order to keep the trucks running, public works Director Bill Oeding had to transfer $100,000 from other budget items to his fuel budget in June.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, Oeding said he expects to finish the year under $300,000, which will mean he won't have to transfer any more money.

"With the drop in price, we'll just make it," he said. "If it had stayed up, we would have struggled to find more money. It wasn't just the fuel we bought in bulk that we were paying for. There was also fuel surcharges for delivery of almost anything we ordered, and the worst was for hauling trash from the transfer station to the landfill. ... It prevented us from buying equipment we needed and making improvements we wanted to make," he said.

Oeding said he had planned to buy more trucks, make improvements to the shop area in equipment and tools and buy more recycling containers. All had to be cut back or eliminated.

Fire Chief David Nondorf said the Fire Department started the year by spending $2,700 for fuel in January, but that jumped to $4,500 during the summer's price peak and has dropped off to about $3,200 in November. Nondorf said the drop in price "couldn't have come at a better time."

The department had to transfer $12,000 in November to cover the additional fuel costs for the year. The high cost of fuel has made it difficult to pay for emergencies, like a $20,000 transmission repair job on the tower truck or the $15,000 replacement of three overhead doors.

The city's Utilities Department is going to have to make some major moves in its budget at year's end because it already spent more than it originally budgeted. The water division budgeted a total of $55,500 for the year and spent $65,284 through October. The sewer department side of the fuel funds also were spent by the end of October with $72,710 budgeted for the year and $74,345 spent already.

Utility Director John Hardwick said the fuel costs hurt cash flow, and managers were advised to look at energy costs when trying to estimate the 2009 budget.

Police were the only ones to make it through the year without resorting to a musical chairs of fund transfers. The department budgeted $170,000 for fuel and spent only $140,000 of that through November. Police Chief Michael Brickner issued orders to reduce use early in the year when fuel prices began to soar, and he credited the officers with "buying into" the philosophy.

That included the increased use of foot patrols and bike patrols and the switch from the 8-cylinder Ford Crown Victorias, which have been a standard of police departments across the country for years, to the 6-cylinder Dodge Chargers, which get better gas mileage.