With more than two months still left in the fiscal year, town officials in Rockingham say the town has surpassed its diesel fuel and gasoline budget and they’re trying to figure how to pay for capital projects.
Chip Stearns is the finance director for the town of Rockingham and the village of Bellows Falls. He says Rockingham cut its diesel-fuel budget this year by $10,000 and its gasoline budget by $4,000.
"At this point in time we’ve exceeded both of those budgets in the current year – diesel fuel by about $7,000 and gasoline to the tune of about $6,000," Stearns said Monday. "No one would have predicted diesel fuel to be a dollar more than it was a year ago."
Stearns says those rising gas prices and the cost of damages caused by Tropical Storm Irene have hampered future road projects.
Across the state, Irene is already forcing many towns to borrow money, taking up most – if not all – of their general funds.
Rockingham is among those towns hoping to reduce its share of damage costs to 5 percent, with most of the repairs being paid for through federal funds.