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STURGEON BAY, Wis. — The Sturgeon Bay Fire Department is handling more calls this year.

Firefighter Austin Gulley sees that increase up close.

“It goes in swings,” he said. “One week it’s med calls, the next week it’s fires, the next week it’s car accidents.”

That increase in people asking for help comes at a time when the costs for fuel are soaring.

But that isn’t changing how Gulley and other firefighters with the department do their jobs.

“It’s business as usual,” he said. “The public still needs us to do our jobs. We need to have our tool box with us whether it be for the jaws or for the water, the pump. We still need to have our stuff with us all the time.”

But it all adds up. Fire Chief Tim Dietman said through the end of May, the department had used between 65-70% of its fuel budget for the year.

“We’re definitely going to be quite a bit over,” he said about the budget outlook for the rest of the year. “Internally within the city, we’re trying to identify other areas where we can maybe be a little bit more lean on to try to absorb that.”

The last thing we want to do is to have to go back and try to do a budget amendment or a budget adjustment on the operating side.”

That means looking here and there to find saving that don’t impact the emergency services the department provides.

“As I go through our budget, we can identify it’s a $1,000 here or $2,500 there,” Dietman said. “It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re able to get it together, it’s probably $15,000 though our fire department budget that we may have some savings. Then again, we expect our fuel to easily eat that up.”

Gulley said he’s doing what he can to help save the department and city fuel and money where he can.

That includes listening to the tank on the trucks as he fills them for the day to make sure it doesn’t over fill.

“That’s a few drops here and there, but it adds up over time,” Gulley said.