The Akron Beacon Journal David Giffels Column

By David Giffels, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Oct. 18–Since its dedication in mid-2002, the eternal flame in front of the Akron Police Department has burned in memory of fallen officers.

One problem: “Eternal” means burning natural gas 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

That low hiss you hear coming from the burner sounds like “ka-ching” to the gas company.

So now, with the price of gas about to go berserk, the police union has had to organize a fund-raiser to help pay the cost.

That’s right. The tastefully symbolic 10-inch flame has suddenly become a fiscal concern.

What’s next? A curfew on the flame at John F. Kennedy’s grave? A moratorium on the film Gaslight?

The cost of natural gas has become the wolf at the door this fall. It colors our conversations; it haunts our daily thoughts; it has become a common thread of angst. It seems to creep in everywhere.

A co-worker overheard two women chatting in an office last week. One said to the other that she was thinking about turning up the thermostat for a couple of hours one evening, then announcing to her husband, “This is for you — Merry Christmas!”

It’s hard to tell where the smile ends and the grimace begins.

So the irony’s not lost when some commuters are switching to mass transportation to cut down on their expenses — but the mass transit providers are getting whacked themselves.

The people who run the Metro Regional Transit Authority must feel like they’ve been double-whammied. One hundred seventeen of their buses run on diesel fuel; the 68 others burn natural gas.

That puts them at the crossroads of a rock in the noggin and a sharp stick in the eye.

“Between fuel prices and availability, it’s hitting us pretty hard,” said Kirt Conrad, Metro’s director of planning. “We don’t have a lot of room to maneuver costwise, anywhere.”

Metro burns through about a million gallons of fuel a year. The agency paid $573,865 for natural gas in 2004, a cost projected to be $740,617 for 2005, Conrad said. Diesel fuel is expected to rise from $498,581 last year to $959,405 this year.

Conrad said Metro is planning to take advantage of the arrival of hydrogen fuel technology when Stanford Ovshinsky opens his Ovonics facility here. The transit authority expects to convert some buses to hybrid vehicles, acting as a guinea pig to demonstrate how hydrogen can help lower costs.

But that won’t happen for more than a year. In the meantime, Metro is at the mercy of a natural gas price that fluctuates monthly, a cause for constant worry.

Which brings us back to the police department’s eternal flame.

Detective Frank Martucci Jr., the keeper of the flame, said there is no danger of its being extinguished. But with a projected 61 percent increase in gas costs, the Fraternal Order of Police has had to take new steps toward covering the bill.

The flame rises from a granite monument next to the stairs outside the Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center, flickering before the words, “Never Forget.”

It has its own gas line and a separate meter inside the station. The monthly bill, currently budgeted at $118, is expected to rise to $180 when the rate hikes kick in.

The FOP pays the gas bill through donations. But with such a significant hike on the horizon, the union became concerned about covering the cost in the long term.

“Some people get the impression that we get the gas for free, and that’s not true,” Martucci said. “That’s coming from the guys and the gals on the street; it’s all of us.”

The union is selling T-shirts and wristbands to bolster a fund for the memorial’s maintenance. The memorial recognizes the 20 Akron police officers who have died in the line of duty.

The T-shirts are printed with a silhouette of a police officer at attention saluting a flame. The names of the fallen officers are on the back. They cost $10 to $13, depending on size. The wristbands are black, with the words “NEVER FORGET” in gold. They cost $5.

Both will be for sale in the police station lobby from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and Nov. 3. You also can order one by calling Martucci at 330-375-2633.

If all goes well, the flame never will be extinguished because of budget trouble. But Martucci revealed that it has gone out a few times in heavy rain and snow.

“There’s nothing eternal except the man upstairs,” he acknowledged.

Well, that — and inflation.

David Giffels’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. He can be reached at 330-996-3572 or at dgiffels@thebeaconjournal.com.

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