Erie County Executive Chris Collins says because of the unexpected increase of fuel prices this year the county will soon run out of money to pay for fuel for county vehicles by the middle of this month. This shortage would impact important services such as sheriff road patrols, snow plowing, and emergency response. "I'm asking for the third time for the legislature to approve this administrative transfer of funds," Executive Chris Collins said in a news conference Wednesday.

Collins says he has already asked the county legislature twice over the past couple weeks to approve the transfer of money to buy more fuel, but it has refused. He is now calling on the chairperson Lynn Marinelli to hold a special session immediately to resolve the matter. Marinelli says a special session may be held sometime next week after the 2009 budget is released and that the issue will most likely be resolved.

Collins says the problem needs to be resolved as soon as possible and if not he will find a way to fix it, even if he has to declare a county-wide state of emergency.

The fuel resolution requests $600,000 to supply fuel to county vehicles for the rest of the year.