A fuel supplier is being blamed with causing $320,000 in damage to two dozen Village of Lake in the Hills Public Works trucks after the village said the supplier filled a storage tank with the wrong type of fuel.
Staff with the Village of Lake in the Hills recently sought spending approval from the village board for $320,647.07 in unexpected repairs to 24 public works trucks.
A delivery of 850 gallons of unleaded fuel to the Lake in the Hills Public Works Department in November was mistakenly pumped into the wrong tank by the contracted fuel supplier, Avalon Petroleum, village officials said in documents.
24 trucks were shortly after filled or topped off with the contaminated fuel in preparation for a major winter storm.
The trucks began operating inefficiently and created error codes.
Officials credited fleet maintenance staff with identifying the mistake and beginning the process of draining and replacing the fuel in the fleet, averting a “catastrophic failure” to the village’s snow removal fleet.
Avalon Petroleum was notified of the error and Bull Valley Ford and Rush Truck Centers were contacted for quotes to perform their repair protocols for contaminated fuel on each of the affected vehicles.
The quotes were submitted as an insurance claim to Avalon Petroleum but the claim is still pending.
“Despite this, there is an immediate need to proceed with the recommended repairs to prevent further issues with the affected vehicles,” village officials said.
Staff also said there is an urgency due to the reliance on the public works fleet for daily operations, as well as snow and ice control during the winter season.
The trucks will need to be rotated out of service for repairs a couple at a time until all of them are repaired.
The village said staff will continue to pursue recovery of all expenses incurred, which could exceed the current estimates if additional damage is identified during the repairs.
The Lake in the Hills Village Board unanimously approved the request to pay $312,799.57 to Bull Valley Ford and $7,847.50 to Rush Truck Centers for the unbudgeted expenses during the Board of Trustees meeting last week.
The FY2026 Village Budget only included limited funds for vehicle repairs and was not sufficient to cover the contaminated fuel repairs to the trucks.