Employees to save on gas by working fewer days
Published 12:00 am Sunday, May 25, 2008
The Selma Times-Journal
Employees of the Dallas County School system will get a break on gas this summer.
The Dallas County School Board has agreed to a four-day workweek for clerical, bookkeeping, transportation and maintenance workers over the summer months.
The employees will work 40 hours in four days instead of five and take shorter lunches. However, the schedules will vary by department because of the type of work that needs to be done.
For example, maintenance workers will need to work in the cooler hours of the day, which is not a concern for clerical and bookkeeping employees.
The new schedule is effective June 2 through July 31. After that, employees will resume their regular schedules.
Some employees are traveling from as far as Birmingham, Verbena and Shelby County.
After doing some research, the board found that Perry County and other municipalities have already gone to a similar schedule.
The Dallas County road department went to a four-day workweek last year and has continued it. Road work such as paving, patchwork and dirt hauling is done by districts, and larger dump trucks are being used to cut down on travel and conserve gas.
Nationally, the price of a gallon of regular gas rose 4.4 cents Friday to a record average of $3.875, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service, and is predicted to go even higher.
On average, drivers in Alaska, Connecticut, California, New York and Illinois are already paying more than $4 for gas, and an increasing number of stations around the country are posting prices higher than $4. In Alaska, where the average price of regular gas stood at a national high of $4.181 Friday, it now costs $94 to fill an Explorer and $77 to fill an Accord.
Elizabeth Stringer paid $43.46 to fill up her 2006 Chevrolet Malibu at Broad Street Shell on Sunday. The price of regular gasoline is $3.919 at the station and plus is $4.019.
Stringer is a local nurse who travels to Perry County to work, and she fills up at least twice a week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.