Lyon County raises employee fuel charge by $0.10

For the first time in more than 20 years, Lyon County is raising the cost per gallon of fuel for all County employees who are currently being charged $0.05 per gallon.

After continued talks on the 2026 fee schedule, Lyon County Commissioners on Tuesday approved an increase of $0.10 per gallon for County agencies and departments.

“Fuel prices vary greatly throughout the year, so budgeting for fuel is kind of a hit-and-miss proposition,” County Administrator Loren Stomberg said.

Todd Draper, who on Tuesday was named the new chair of the board, succeeding Gary Crowley, said the County’s top user among its agencies is United Community Partnership, followed by the City of Marshall, the Highway Department and the Sheriff’s Department. The County has been changing 5 cents over its tanker price load — the County buys one tanker at a time. Each department or agencies that uses the service helps pay for repairs on the system.

“We did take a look at doing some work on that system, and we figured if we did something above ground — a diesel tank and a gas tank — we could be looking at upward of $200,000,” Draper said. “At 5 cents … there’s not that much money in there. The point being is, what are we going to do moving forward because that system is aging, especially the computer stuff. That system could go down in five years — where’s the money going to come from to replace it?”

The idea of an increase, Draper said, is to raise funds that can be put into a capital improvement account to help pay for a new system sometime in the future. Stomberg reminded the board that providing fuel for County employees is a service, not a money-making venture, so if someone were to go somewhere else for fuel, it wouldn’t affect the County’s bottom line significantly.

“This is just collaboration that we’re sharing; if they want to pull out, it’s not going to make any difference,” said Stomberg.

The total number of gallons (gas and diesel) used in 2025 was 142,769.77.

“I like the idea of raising it some to probably put something in the kitty for problems down the road,” Crowley said. “If we don’t do something and that system fails, and we’ve gotta spend $250,000 to put in a new system … but are all these ones that we work with now — are they gonna say, ‘We’ll pay our share, or are they gonna pull out and go somewhere else?”

Commissioner Rick Anderson preferred if the County were to increase the cost of fuel, he would rather do so incrementally, rather than a larger jump in the future.

Commissioners agree that the fuel system will likely have to be repaired soon — perhaps within the next 10 years. The state of the fuel system is something that has been discussed for a number of years.

Commissioner Paul Graupmann made the motion to increase to cost per gallon, effective now, with Commissioner Tom Andries seconding.