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"We are requesting they do a little more stationary radar or sit and watch (during the 25% of officers' time that is spent on patrol)," said Sanilac County Sheriff Virgil Strickler.

"We want to assure people they will still get a response if they request a response. But whenever possible we will take it (complaint) on the phone," he added.

The sheriff department has also instructed their officers to turn the vehicle engine off when parked, unless the emergency equipment is being activated for traffic policing or officer / citizen safety. In addition, all shift briefings should take place by computer laptops, and sergeants will monitor and approve patrols returning to the office.

The sheriff department and state police, both of which are understaffed, share coverage of the county. The sheriff department covers the daytime and midnight shift, while the state police handles the afternoon shift.

State Police Sgt. Barbara Soflin said the Sandusky office has not been given mileage restrictions yet.

Combined with the increasing food prices, the high cost of fuel has hit the Human Development Commission's meals on wheels program hard.

"It is putting real grief on our volunteers because we only pay 40.5 cents per mile. We are hard pressed to find volunteers," stated Communications Director Richard Kloor.

He said the HDC Board is reviewing their options, but it is not a case of shifting money from other funds because all areas are taking funding cuts.

Schools are also cutting their fuel usage.

Sandusky Superintendent Martha Essenmacher said the district bought their own fuel tanks this year so they could put it out to bid and get a better price.

The district will now be paying 10 cents over cost for diesel and regular gas.

They had been budgeting for a 10 percent increase in fuel costs. Due to the change in usage and the bids, Sandusky is now looking at a 5 percent increase in fuel expenses.

The district has consolidated bus routes, eliminating two routes and is considering running buses on a limited basis for weekend sports events.

With a 160 square mile school district, Croswell-Lexington is limited in what they can do to reduce fuel expenses.

Superintendent Dr. Kevin Miller said the bus route changes they are making to align with their new starting time schedules will help save money because there will be fewer bus runs.

They used to run 13 buses with just elementary students from Lexington. Next fall those buses will also carry middle school and high school students.

"The big question is what will the price be in the fall. What do you project (in the budget)? It added $40,000 to our budget (this year)," Miller said.

Deckerville Schools is also cutting two bus routes and weekend sports transportation.

One of the bus runs that has been cut is the noon bus run. The parents of the 34 pre-school students will have to provide transportation to or from school for their children.

Superintendent Alan Broughton said they district is also limiting bus trips for sports event when there is only a small number of students involved. He said they are also going to monitor field trips, although each class will still get one field trip.

Gas price increases added $19,000 to Deckerville's budget this year.

The road commission's administration has directed that gravel-hauling trucks be based at the gravel pit closest to the job instead of sending them back to their home garage at the end of each day.

Engineer-Manager Robb Falls said although they have to pay the operators mileage to drive from their original garage, it still saves money.

Also if they don't have a job to do, the drivers are to park their truck and do cleaning, repairs, greasing etc. rather than driving around looking for road repairs that need to be done.

Falls said the foremen have also been told to bring the time cards into the Sandusky office every other day instead of every day.

"We haven't tried to cut back on service, we're trying to operate more efficiently," he stated.

Sanilac Transportation Corporation Director Onalee Pallas said there is not a lot her department can do to cut fuel use.

"We provide a service ...We are a demand response," she said of the public transit agency that provides rides to citizens around the county.

She has instructed the drivers not to start their buses early, although in the winter they have to warm them up. In addition, the mechanics have told her it is all right to tell the drivers to shut the buses off if they have to wait 10-15 minutes even though with diesels it can be harder to re-start the engine if they are shut off too long.

Pallas they are tying to stick to areas where they already have a lot of business. She has also told the dispatcher to try and stack up rides. For example during times when they usually receive a number of calls for rides to Wal-Mart they will tell people the wait time will be 20 minutes instead of five minutes in order to pick up more than one person in an area.

Pallas said they have looked into alternative fuels, but there are no local suppliers.

She said Bluewater Transportation has switched to compressed natural gas and it is costing them just $1.50 per gallon including hard costs.

However, it would cost $300,000 to put in a compressor, which wouldn't be cost effective for only 13 buses unless other departments would also convert.