Palmer Township locks in gas prices

$1.58 per gallon for two years, $2 for diesel

Palmer Township has opted for the certainty of fixed pricing over the next two years in buying wholesale gasoline and diesel fuel.

Supervisors on Monday awarded contracts to Petroleum Traders Corporation of Fort Wayne, Indiana, for gasoline and Talley Petroleum Enterprises of Grantville, Dauphin County, for diesel fuel.

Both agreements lock in the township for two years at fixed rates.

“Two-year agreements are the better deal,” Chairman David Colver said before separate 3-0 votes were cast to enter into agreements with both providers.

Supervisors K. Michael Mitchell and Jeffrey Young were absent.

The township requested both fluctuating and fixed prices per gallon for one- and two-year terms in soliciting bids.

Petroleum Traders was awarded a two-year fixed contract to provide the township 119,000 gallons of 87 octane fuel at $1.58 per gallon.

The township’s agreement with Talley Petroleum is for 32,000 gallons per year of ultralow sulfur diesel fuel at $2 per gallon.

Suburban Propane, one of two other bidders along with Papco, submitted one- and two-year fluctuating proposals at $1.85 per gallon for gasoline and $2.03 for diesel.

Each proposal for the fluctuating option included a markup price over the rack price.

Estimates call for the township to use about 53,000 gallons of gasoline and 31,700 gallons of diesel fuel across all of its departments in 2020, with Suburban EMS using 66,000 gallons of gasoline and 300 gallons of diesel, according to Tom Adams, director of public services.