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Boca Gas Station Owners Tell City of Storm Plans

Posted on: Saturday, 20 May 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Luis F. Perez, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

May 20--Boca Raton· More than half the city's gas stations have generators or will before the next hurricane, their owners said Friday.

Hoping to avoid a repeat of last year, when post-Hurricane Wilma power outages caused a fuel crisis, city leaders called a "gas station summit" to hear the owners' plans. Seven owners, representing 13 out of the 25 stations in the city showed up.

City leaders told the owners they struggled to maintain the city's supply to fuel police cars and fire trucks, and to keep vital water pumping stations and treatment plants up and running after Wilma because suppliers often push municipalities to the end of the line. They asked if the owners would turn over their fuel deliveries to the city in another emergency. They also proposed providing several stations with city-owned generator in exchange for giving essential personnel priority at their stations.

Ira Winters, owner of a Chevron station on Spanish River Boulevard, liked that idea.

"I was under the impression that the city might help us out with generators," he said.

Last year, Winters borrowed a friend's generator to power his 10 pumps on an evacuation route.

"I ran [the generator] until I ran out of gas," he said.

Other owners are investing tens of thousands of dollars on generators to power their pumps and stores. But Winter said he couldn't afford the large generators.

"When you're a little service station, you can't afford that kind of money," he said.

So he planned to work with the city or maybe buy a portable generator.

Tony Shamoun, owner of the Valero station at Palmetto Park Road and Federal Highway, said he went without power for a total of four days after last year's storms. He was lucky, he said. So this year, he plans on buying a 10,000-watt generator to keep him running.

"As long as the port stays open," he said.

Mayor Steven Abrams said he was glad to see stations scattered across the city had emergency plans so residents could fill their tanks close to home. "I thought there was resistance to having generators," he said.

Assistant City Manager Michael Woika planned to send a letter to the station owners who did not attend updating them on the meeting's discussion.

Luis F. Perez can be reached at lfperez@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6641.

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Copyright (c) 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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