The June 6 Seward County Independent headline was "County renews fuel option."
     Again according to SCI, in the year 2006 the county commissioners voted to buy a July 2007 call option at a strike price of $1.91 for 42,000 gallons of heating oil (not diesel fuel) at a cost of $6,100.
     Now let's fast forward to the commissioners meeting on May 29. The broker told the board that as heating oil is going down in the summer months (no foolin,' you'd think we'd use more heating oil when it's hot), let's get out of our July option ahead of time and go to October heating oil call with a $2.26 strike price at a cost of only 7 cents a gallon. The board agreed 3-1 and wrote the broker another check for $840. So now the county has $7,000 invested in their $2.26 option plus the $7,000 or 16.5 cents not counting broker's fee or $2.42.5 before the so-called protection kicks in.
     October heating oil as I'm writing this is $2.05 a gallon. Now if the board actually thinks it's going above $2.42.5 buy an oil contract not option and you'll make 37.5 cents or more which is $15,750 plus. That would cover our $7,000 loss.
     The sad part of all of this has and diesel prices hit an all-time record high the first week of June so you can bet the county is paying much more for their diesel fuel. Again according to the SCI June 6 paper, we're led to believe that the county gets their fuel for $1.91 as long as they have the option which is simply untrue.
     Wouldn't it have made more sense to contract your fuel ahead as most farmers do? I can't wait for your next move.
    Byron Brigham
    Seward