All this week on Sound Ideas, WGLT will assess the impact high gas prices are having on the McLean County economy — everything from gig drivers, to schools, to farmers to nonprofits.
The current price of unleaded in McLean County is $4.36 a gallon, according to fuel tracker GasBuddy.com. That more than $1 higher than last summer.
Featured speakers were Sue Spivey, Barb Symanski, Jaquese Price, Jacki Martin, Mike Grosso and Sally Whaley.
This audio postcard was produced by Eric Stock and student reporter Zachary Knox-Doyle. A lightly edited transcript is below:
Sue Spivey, Normal resident: Well, it's curtailed some of my going places, I mean, because of the gas prices. And I really think it's going to impact seniors and low-income families, because of the fact that, you know, even low-income families aren't going to be able to take much of a vacation this year with the economy the way it is. And it's definitely going to impact seniors.
WGLT Student Reporter Zachary Knox-Doyle: Has it affected you traveling to different places because of these gas prices being higher?
Spivey: Well yeah, I mean, with the gas prices, you know, you can't afford to go anywhere, you know, by the time you buy groceries, and gas, and pay your utilities, that's pretty much it if you're on a fixed income.
Barb Symanski, Bloomington resident: We just moved recently to Bloomington from Grand Rapids, Michigan; closer to family. Since we're retired, we don't have to go as often as most people go, but when we go we're very careful not to go too far at one time, because you want to save pennie. And dimes and quarters.
WGLT News Director Eric Stock: Of course. Like shorter trips, basically, do you go out of town as often or anything like that?
Symanski: Don't go out of town as often. We are learning Bloomington, wonderful town, and we're getting used to going places right in Bloomington mostly, or Normal.
Jacquese Price, Bloomington resident: They've raised pretty, pretty high. I don't travel as much. I went from like $25 to fill a gallon to $50, so you know, I just go where I need to and go back home. I don't really stay out too much.
Jacki Martin, Bloomington resident: My car takes premium, right? So it is very expensive, so you have to make decisions on whether or not you want to use that money to travel or if you want to use it for other things, like at the grocery store, or other items, so it does impact you that way.
Knox-Doyle: And what car do you drive?
Martin: I have a Mercedes.
Knox-Doyle: And has this affected maybe vacation plans or planning stuff like that to go out of town?
Martin: It has. So, one thing that I've noticed is booking airfare, right? So not only is it regular gasoline costs, it’s also airfare will be impacted as well. So I went ahead and booked early, six months early actually, for a flight to get ahead of the change in gas prices.
Mike Grosso, Bloomington attorney: It's increased about 35% and we do a lot of traffic in and around the city. And as a result, there's more fill-ups at this higher price, and so we have to pass it on in our operation costs of doing business.
Stock: So, is there a way to combat that? You just drive less, or you just got to find a way to pay for it?
Grosso: You just have to find a way to pay for it.
Stock: Does that eat into spending in other ways?
Grosso: What it does, it cuts into my bottom line, because I'm covering that cost.
Stock: What about personally? Does it affect travel plans or anything like that?
Grosso: Not really. We realize that if we're going to go some place, you just have to grin and bear it.
Sally Whaley, Lexington resident: My husband and I run a non-for-profit, Servants for Our Lord Ministry, and so we are a joint venture with Midwest Food Bank. We travel to Kentucky on a regular basis. So we go every month to Kentucky, there and back. It's a six hour drive from Lexington, Illinois. And when we travel, we do look at the prices for gas in Indiana, we look at the prices for gas in Kentucky, and we look at the prices of gas here in Illinois.
Stock: You just have to find a way to deal with it, or do you find other ways to offset that cost?
Whaley: You know, there's also, there’s apps that you can get on your phone. GasBuddy is an app that you can use on there and you can use that to search and target where the lower prices are, you can pull it up by map, or you can pull it up by address and so a lot of times we'll use that. Sometimes he'll be ahead of me in the box truck and he'll just say, ‘Hey, I had to pull over for gas. It's cheaper here; go stop here if you're gonna have to stop.’
