City, school district looking into shared fuel facility

City leaders want to partner up with the Maricopa Unified School District on the construction of a joint-use fuel facility.

Currently, the district is in the process of receiving approval to construct a fuel station as part of a new transportation facility. Having a fueling station would enable the school district to buy fuel in bulk at a significantly discounted price.

In order to receive the same discounts, city officials are proposing that Maricopa pay for the construction of the facility in exchange for the ability to share in the cheaper fuel costs.

“The way the pumping station would work is that city employees when filling up would swipe their gas card, which would in turn bill the city for the amount of gas used,” said Ray Arrellin, city fleet manager.

Arrellin added both entities need to build a fueling station, and cooperating together would save money not only on fuel but also on construction and land purchases. “By having a shared facility, that frees up funding for both entities to put toward other projects,” he said.

While no formal agreement has been drawn up for consideration, the city brought up the possibility of a proposal at the last school district board meeting.

“We want to get the discussion going on this possibility,” said Brad Hinton, development expeditor for the city.

However, a shared facility could face several obstacles. The district is operating under strict time constraints to get a new transportation facility constructed because the current holding area is scheduled to be renovated as part of the high school expansion.

By partnering up with the city on the project, a public hearing is required, which would eat 30 days of possible construction time.

Board member Carrie Vargas said that she was not necessarily against the project, but wanted to ensure that partnering with the city would not affect the district’s time line.

Another possible hurdle for the joint partnership is the district would need to ask the community that donated the land about allowing the city to enter into the project.

“When we got approval to build this project from the HOA, the plans did not include any mention of the city using the facility, so we would need to take this issue back to them first for approval,” district Superintendent John Flores said.

Other issues that could arise from the partnership include liability and maintenance costs. Hinton said that the city is open to working through all the issues and if necessary would even consider building the fuel facility on a separate parcel of land.

While board members had concerns, they instructed the superintendent to begin talking with the city of the possibility of a joint facility.

“If this is something that is going to save the district money, we need to start the conversation,” said board president Geoff Goddard.

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