Even before he knew gas had bolted up to $4.15 per gallon over lunchtime Thursday, Mel Stimmel was fuming
about the costs.
"It’s killing us," he said, after pulling his van up to his store, Stimmel’s Market in Bowling
Green. "I have to drive. I make deliveries."
Stimmel estimated he drives about 75 miles a day for his store. The rising fuel costs, he said, get
tacked on to the doughnuts and other delicacies.
"We pass it on to the customers. It all gets passed on to us," he said. "All the vendors
add delivery cost."
The spiking gas prices are also cramping his personal habits.
"We hardly drive at all," he said. And Thursday night, he was carpooling to Loma Linda’s on
Airport Highway for dinner.
"That’s the first time in months because of the price of gas," he said about his evening out.

He isn’t the only one who thinks the rising costs are highway robbery.
Working at the cash register at Stimmel’s Market was Noelle Vollmar, who estimated that she pays $60 each
week to fill up her gas tank. She doesn’t like it.
"I still have to drive," said Vollmar, who lives about 15 miles from her workplace. "You
have to get it."
"It’s ridiculous," she said, adding that the costs have convinced her to change her lifestyle a
bit. "I try to combine trips to get everything done."
Down the street at Anew the Salon, the rising gas prices led three generations of one family to carpool
from Risingsun for their hair appointments.
The driving honors went to the eldest generation, Sharon Kiser.
"She’s got more gas than us," said her daughter, Kandie Podach.
The youngest of the trio, Kylie Podach, has temporarily mothballed her Dodge pickup in order to drive the
family’s Buick LeSabre, which gets better gas mileage, to college at Terra Tech.
"We won’t let her drive her truck," Kandie Podach said. Even before the leap to $4.15 a gallon
on Thursday, it took about $80 to fill up the pickup. "I make her take my granny car."
Much to Kylie’s dismay, the rising gas prices may mean the truck gets traded in.
"She just got her truck and now we’re looking to buy something smaller," her mom said.
The family had seen gas prices pinching other areas of their budget.
"You can’t afford to buy groceries because you have to put gas in your tank," Kandie Podach
said.
Over at the county office building, Dave Steiner, director of the county planning commission, said his
driving habits have changed as well.
"I’ll definitely consolidate more trips," he said. And his beloved Jeep Wrangler, well, it may
take a backseat to his wife’s 4-Runner, which gets better gas mileage.
Kelly Hemminger, who lives in Woodville and works at the county office building in Bowling Green, drives
a gas guzzling Hummer, which gets about 17 miles per gallon. She has to fill up at least once a week,
which costs more than $70.
"I don’t go shopping as much," except squeezing in grocery shopping in Bowling Green over
lunchtime. "I try to just go home after work."
Katie Baltz, makes the trek from North Baltimore to the county building to work each day.
"I should start carpooling," she said. Baltz has been using her "gas buddy"
application on her smartphone to try to locate the cheapest gas when she needs to fill up her tank.
Bowling Green Police Chief Brad Conner doesn’t have far to drive to work, but he makes frequent trips to
Swanton for his son’s travel baseball team.
He has noticed the pain at the pump lately. During one recent trip to the gas station with his pickup
truck, the pump cut off when it hit a maximum allowed charge.
"The pump stopped at $75, and I wasn’t full yet," he said.