Gas stations in Morgan Hill were busy changing their signs again
this week. This time with many raising their prices over $3 per
gallon.
Gas stations in Morgan Hill were busy changing their signs again this week. This time with many raising their prices over $3 per gallon.
The effect of the rising rates has continued to hit consumers in their pocket books.
“I’m hurting,” said Morgan Hill resident Van Krueger, who was filling his tank at Morgan Hill’s World service station Friday morning. He has to drive to Palo Alto three times a week, where he provides support and operations for start-up companies.
With a pained expression, Krueger pointed to the price of $45.61 for about 14 gallons of gas.
“I drive a hundred miles a day,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m paying that three times a week.”
The average gas price in Morgan Hill was $3.05 a gallon for regular unleaded according to Times’ calculations, with the lowest price found on Friday afternoon at $2.99 a gallon. The highest price for a gallon of regular unleaded was $3.09 and premium stretched as high as $3.20.
An attendant at Morgan Hill 76 station on Monterrey Road said the station ran out of gas at 8pm Thursday evening because of high demand from consumers trying to fill up before prices increased again. The station finally received a fresh supply at 1pm Friday afternoon.
Although people are angry at the record high prices, Kothapalli said they haven’t taken it out on him.
“They aren’t blaming me,” he said. “They know. People have been listening to the news and updating information. We don’t know what’s going to happen to prices.”
The spike in gas prices this time is largely attributed to fuel pipeline shutdowns and delayed deliveries as Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana and Mississippi early this week, as well as the annual onslaught of holiday travelers for Labor Day weekend.
Gas prices have been sky-rocketing all year. In August, the price of regular unleaded in Morgan Hill broke records with an average of $2.67 per gallon, up from $2.51 at the end of July. The $3.05 per gallon rate is another record breaker.
The rapidly rising rates has tried some people’s patience.
“This is ridiculous,” exclaimed Thomas Rios, who was making deliveries in Morgan Hill Friday for Gilroy’s Advanced Machining Techniques. “Yesterday, gas was just $2.99 and now it’s at $3.09.”
Rios has a morning and afternoon route and drives about 150 miles a day delivering machine parts to high-tech and aerospace companies located around the Bay area, often as far as Fremont and Hayward.
“This is going to mess up people’s vacations,” he said. “A lot of people are going to stay close to home.”
Regardless of the increases, AAA estimated 4.9 million people will take to the roadways this weekend.
Even the City of Morgan Hill is feeling the pinch. The city estimated $120,000 would be spent on gas this fiscal year for all city operations, according to Financial Director Jack Dilles.
“The increase will certainly impact us,” said Dilles. “Gas is used for critical operations, for police and public works. It will not be the end of the world, but I expect we will talk about it at our staff meeting next week.”
City Manager Ed Tewes said this year’s budget outlay for gasoline is a 15 percent increase from last year. With the recent hike in gas prices, he said, “It is not yet clear whether that would be sufficient.”
Tewes explained the city still has to use gas for police, utility workers, and inspectors of development projects, making it nearly impossible to cut back on the need. This year the city budgeted $60,720 for gasoline and oil for police field operations alone, $6,500 on gasoline and oil for park maintenance, and $11,571 for gas and oil for street maintenance.
The silver lining to the ominous gas-price cloud is an increase in gas sales tax revenues, which Dilles said increases with fuel prices. But it’s a hollow victory, Dilles said.
“We don’t want gas prices to go up,” he stressed. “No one does.”
Even the local school district is feeling the pain at the pump. Thirty-two of the district’s 55 school buses travel a combined 4,000 miles a day throughout 300 square miles of the Morgan Hill School District.
“It has hurt us tremendously,” said Linda Evaro, director of Transportation for the Morgan Hill Unified School District. “With our new buses, we switched to ultra low sulfur diesel, which is supposed to be eight cents more, but this (gas price hike) will raise our prices even more now.”
Evaro said the school district gets a commercial price, which was $2.51 a gallon for unleaded gas and $2.85 a gallon for diesel just two weeks ago. She learned Friday afternoon that the price increased to $3.29 a gallon for diesel. The district’s eight new buses average five miles per gallon and the most fuel-efficient vehicles average 12, she said.
But no one feels the crunch as badly as the U.S. Postal Service, according to Gus Ruiz, the USPS Bay/Valley District spokesman. Though he couldn’t provide an estimate for local services, he said nationwide the effect is tremendous.
“The U.S. Postal Service is the absolute largest vehicle fleet in the world, so, any time gas prices go up one penny, it’s an additional $8 million dollars nationwide, and it’s not just going up by a penny these days,” he said. “It’s going up in increments of a quarter or more. But there’s nothing we can do. We still have to deliver the mail.”
Rose Meily is cover City Hall for the Morgan Hill Times. Reach her at 779-4106 or by e-mail at rm****@*************es.com.
