During a report on the Gas Department given by Superintendent Steve Seay during the Aug. 27 City Council meeting, Seay said the cost of natural gas to customers of the Fairhope utility is not as expensive as had recently been reported in the media.

In June, Seay, who has been employed with the city for more than 27 years, said he called other area providers and asked them how much 15 CCF of gas would cost at a residential rate. His reported findings are:

• Bay Minette: $36.52

• Mobile Gas: $35.72

• Daphne Utilities: $35.52

• Fairhope: $34.03

• Loxley Utilities: $31.35

• Riviera Utilities: $29.87

“The last time the Fairhope Gas Department had a rate increase to fund day-to-day operations and maintenance was in 1984,” he said. Other increases, Mayor Tim Kant added, have been due to the cost of the gas itself.

The department is staffed by 15 people. After regular working hours, on a rotating basis, employees serve stand-by duty, Seay said, so that coverage is provided 24-hours-day, seven-days a week.

Since 1950, when the first gas main was put down, 467 miles of gas mains have been installed. Fairhope gas lines run from Bay Minette south and east on Highway 31, south on Alabama Highway 59 and U.S. 98 to the end of County Road 1; a branch line runs off of Highway 181 down to County Road 32.

“That first line came down Alabama 59 from Bay Minette to Stapleton, east on 31 and south on 98 to Fairhope,” he said.

Initially, gas, sewer and water were all one department, Seay said. When the utilities began regulated by state agencies, water and sewer were split off into a separate department.

Daphne, which has its own gas system, owns 10 percent of our gas lines from Bay Minette to Daphne and 12.5 percent of the gas line that comes down 181, Seay said, so the city has to pay Daphne those percentages for the gas that comes down those lines.

Seay said he projects the department will put down 45 miles of additional gas lines each year for the rest of the decade.

From 1950 through 1959, the department installed 1,834 gas services. Cumulatively, through 2006, the department has installed 9,370 gas services and had 8,600 gas meters in place.

“Currently, the gas department is working after hours and on weekends to install ERTs (encoder receiver transmitters) with some assistance from the meter department,” Seay said. ERTs will enable the department to have an automated gas meter reading system. He said they were replacing old gas meters during this process, too. “We have some meters that are over 50 years old.”

In 2006, the gas department responded to 281 gas leak calls, performed 871 gas inspections and completed 1,737 work orders. He said the gas department assisted other city departments as needed.

The department conducts a gas leak survey of critical areas — downtown and the “fruit and nut” district — annually, and of the entire system every five years.

“Right now, we have about 10 miles of cast iron pipe in our system that we haven’t had a problem with,” Seay said, “but the Alabama Public Service Commission and Alabama Department of Transportation recommend we have a plan in place to get rid of that pipe.”

He is currently working on that plan and said he would present it to the council. “My thinking is that we will replace it one mile a year, and the Public Service Commission is OK with that.”