This week, Jefferson Hills Mayor Michael Green will send a letter to the borough's 5,000 residents asking for a $5 donation to the town's volunteer fire companies, which are struggling with high fuel costs.

In the mailings, the mayor plans to include copies of the three departments' budgets and a report estimating the tax increase residents would face if the borough switched to a paid fire department.

Jefferson Fire and Rescue spent about $20,000 on diesel fuel in 2006 and $25,000 in 2007. So far this year, each of the three departments have spent $37,000 on fuel, $15,000 more than they had budgeted.

Figures from the report on the potential cost of a paid department to taxpayers were not immediately available, Jefferson Hills Fire Chief Alvin Henderson said, but Mr. Green said the cost would be "enormous."

"Our volunteers are putting in time to make sure our houses are safe and to protect our children, and I think they are taken for granted," Mr. Green said.

"I know that everyone is burdened, that people are struggling just to make ends meet. That's why I am only asking for $5. It might sound funny, but if everyone works together, we can make a big difference," he said of this first-time solicitation.

In May, council voted to give $1,000 to each of the borough's three volunteer departments -- Floreffe, Gill Hall and Jefferson No. 885 -- to help relieve fuel costs.

But diesel fuel prices continued to rise -- to almost $5 a gallon earlier this summer -- and the fire companies used the extra $1,000 in about a month, Mr. Green said.

Facing a huge crunch, the departments have dipped into their training budgets to cover the cost of fuel. Like council's $1,000 relief, this is only a short-term fix, Mr. Green said.

He and Mr. Henderson have also devised a plan to save fuel costs: Each department's fire chief sometimes drives a municipal car to the scene of a fire first to determine the amount of equipment needed.

The Jefferson Hills department also responds to calls in other boroughs.

"The more you go on, the higher the fuel bill runs," Mr. Henderson said.

Politicians at the state and federal level also are addressing the fuel issue. In July, U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Scranton, introduced the SAVES Act, which would reimburse volunteer fire companies for 75 percent of the rise in fuel costs from 2007.

A news release from Rep. Altmire's office announcing the bill stated that diesel fuel prices have risen 229 percent in the five years between June 2003 and June 2008.

Mr. Green and Mr. Henderson expect the situation to worsen in the winter, when heating costs drive up the price of fuel.

Mr. Green said that in his ideal scenario, his letter would raise $25,000, enough to hold over the three fire companies for the rest of the year and give Jefferson Hills time to enact a new policy.

For now, the 70 volunteer firefighters in Jefferson Hills are fund raising on their own with dinners, bingo and door-to-door requests.

"If these guys get disgusted and quit, taxes are going to go up for everybody," Mr. Green said.