Source From http://www.newsnet5.com
BROOK PARK, Ohio – From the spring of 2007 to the fall of 2008 the price of gasoline was a topic of regular discussion most places people gathered.
Oh we flirted with $3 a gallon after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but it wasn’t until around Memorial Day of 2007 that we crossed the $3 mark on a more consistent basis. It hovered there until the spring of 2008 when $4 a gallon came into the picture.
The freefall that was the fall of 2008 erased many of those memories from our mind as gas dropped to a Cleveland average of around $1.60 a gallon in mid-December, mirroring the slide of the nation’s economy.
For the next year and a half, gasoline would hover for the most in the $2-$3 range and gas price stories and conversations, for the most part, quieted down.
But with it hovering again north of $3 — fueled by greater demand from places like China as their economies rebound — people are taking note and talking.
Especially since economists warn $4 a gallon may not be out of the question this summer.
Daniel Kasnik of Parma took one look at his pickup and said he’s not ready.
“No, no I mean obviously you see this truck you know it’s not the greatest gas mileage so I mean you just have to cut back in other places, that’s what’s going to happen,” he said.
During the price hike in 2008, Kasnik was living in Italy just out of the Navy. He said gas over there at the time was about 1.5 Euros a liter which came to about $8 a gallon at the time. Through it all he said, people drove.
“What are you going to do? People are going to drive either way they could put it up to six dollars a gallon people are still going to have to pay for it.”
Mario Susec of Middleburg Heights is a land scaper who plows in the winter. When it comes right down to it, if gasoline goes up, it’s the customers that feel the pinch.
“Then I’m going to raise my prices a little bit,” he said. “That’s all you can really do.”
