BLOOMINGTON - McLean County deputies patrol more than 1,100 square miles in vehicles that get about 20 miles to the gallon.

They're logging fewer miles by doubling up in squad cars. An overflow of inmates is sent to the jail in Kankakee County, whose deputies drive them back and forth to Bloomington.

At the highway department, road crews are using bio-diesel in the summer and cutting less grass, less often.

It's all to save a buck, thanks to the high price of gasoline and diesel.

Sheriff Mike Emery said the two-deputy cars patrol districts with a high volume of calls.

"That way, we are sending two officers out but not spending the gas on two cars," Emery said. "We are also asking them to turn off the squads but in the high heat, with all the gear they wear, it's hard to tell them to turn off the air conditioning."

Emery sends inmates to Kankakee, where the cost of transportation is included in a $60 daily fee per inmate. "I think we are getting a big value out of that because they bring the bus down three or four times a week," he added.

At the highway department, after a winter of heavy snows put plow trucks on the roads more often, Engineer Eric Schmitt is trying to make up the difference.

"A lot of the snow work bit into our budget early on and we are trying to make up for that right now but it's tough," said Schmitt, who oversees the maintenance of about 363 miles of road. Plow trucks get six to eight miles to a gallon of diesel fuel.

He's tried to save money by using bio-diesel in the summer. It's not feasible in the winter because the trucks lose engine power and the fuel gels at colder temperatures.

Workers also have reduced the areas and frequency of roadside mowing.

And at job sites, larger dump trucks are parked. Schmitt said crews use pickup trucks - whose mileage is a little better - to get around.

Despite the efforts, the departments' fuel budgets are ravaged. As of June 30, six months into the county's fiscal year, the sheriff's department had spent 81 percent of its annual fuel allotment, about $92,941 of the $115,000 budgeted. The highway department was slightly better off, spending about 75 percent, or $169,401 of its budgeted $225,000.

Like its residents, Administrator John Zeunik said the county will set priorities to make up the fuel cost overruns in its budget.

"We're spending more of our disposable income on fuel," Zeunik said.

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McLean County

- Turn off patrol cars when not in use

- Use county jails whose inmate fees include transportation

- Use bio-diesel when appropriate

- Reduce the area and frequency of roadside mowing