The Emporia Gazette

March 20, 2010

• Headlines
• Sports
• Weather
• Classifieds

• Help
• Log in
• Home

• E-mail story to a friend
• Comments on this story
• iPod friendly version

How high have gasoline prices soared? Well, high enough that Emporia State University’s new provost and vice president for academic affairs is thinking about getting a Toyota Prius.

Tes Mehring, named to hold that position at ESU effective June 16, has commuted to Emporia from Olathe for the 27 years that she’s been a faculty member. She currently drives a 2007 Honda CRV and gets 27 or 28 miles per gallon, but a switch to the Prius would be a sizable efficiency upgrade for the 90-mile drive.

The 2008 Prius is ranked the most fuel-efficient vehicle by www.fueleconomy.gov, with 48 miles per gallon in the city and 45 on the highway. Mehring is also considering finding a place to stay in Emporia during the week, something she hadn’t really thought about until the last couple of months or so.

Yes, even high-ranking ESU administrators can feel the financial impact of fuel costs the likes of which the U.S. has never seen before.

“Well, when it goes from spending, oh, a couple hundred dollars a month on gas,” Mehring said, “to, I think I’m averaging now about $500 a month on gas, it does cause you to sort of think about alternatives.”

Area commuters like Mehring — people who burn not only the midnight oil, but round-the-clock oil for everything from work to driving their children to out-of-town sports — have already begun making adjustments to account for the price of gas. And with the average price of gas in Kansas at $3.86 for regular fuel according to www.fuelgaugereport.com’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report on Friday, local commuters also see a time in the not-distant future when other, more drastic changes may have to be considered.

Michelle Ponce has a shorter commute than Mehring, but still a commutes from Emporia to Topeka for her job as director of communications with the state’s Social and Rehabilitation Services. She used to drive a smaller sport utility vehicle, a Ford Escape, and says she didn’t get rid of the Escape because of gas mileage. But gas mileage, she said, played a role in determining what her next vehicle would be.

“I traded that in for a Mercury Milan, which does give me about a full round trip, back and forth to Topeka per tank of gas, more,” she said.

She fills her Milan with “regular unleaded — whatever’s the cheapest,” but so far, she hasn’t made any lifestyle changes to compensate for the price spike.

“At this point, I’m absorbing that cost,” she said. “Although my gas budget’s certainly going up per month, I’m watching it very closely. ... I’ve gone to school, and my desire is to work in state government, so that’s why I work in Topeka. And at this point, I don’t foresee changing that behavior at all, although it’s getting more difficult as gas prices go up.

“If they went up more significantly, as they’re kind of forecasting later this summer, I might look for arrangements where possibly I could work from home one day a week, or something like that.”

Kids who are active in sports can eat up just as many miles and gallons as a work commute. Shane Bell of Olpe and his wife, Kim, tote their two younger children to MAYB basketball tournaments all over the state year-round. This weekend, their daughter’s headed to a tournament in Junction City, 115 miles from Olpe. Next weekend, both kids will be playing in Newton, 85 miles away.

Shane and his wife both work full-time, and have been eating out less and shopping less to compensate for the high digits being rung up at the gas pump. Income-wise, they may soon need more.

“We do not do a lot of frivolous spending,” Shane Bell said. “I mean, every dime has gotta count right now. ... I’ve been thinking here the last week, that the way things are going, to probably start looking for a part-time job.”

He said the potential effect of a continued rise in fuel prices scares him.

“And probably more than likely (if it continues), we’ll have to do away with the extra activities for the kids,” he said. “I hate to do it, but it’s probably what’s gonna happen.”

Another parent with children heavily involved in sports, Marla McClellan, says her husband and children are carpooling to games with other families and, beginning this year, will stay in hotels during out-of-town basketball tournaments.

“And we wouldn’t have done that before,” she said, “because it’s cheaper to stay than it is to drive back and forth.”

Her oldest son, Tyler, will play football at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina next year. Marla said with respect to that, the distance and cost won’t matter — she’ll be going to see him play.

“He’s very conscious about it, because he has an old truck, so he was thinking, ‘I need a smaller car, it’s gonna cost me a hundred dollars to come home,’” she said. “So he’s thinking about it, but of course, Mom’s thinking, ‘I’m going anyway.’ It has to be a lot higher to stop me from getting to my kid’s game.

“So we’ll do without something else, rather than not go to the ballgames.”

Advertisements

• © 2010 The Emporia Gazette. All rights reserved.
• Customer Service
• Contact Us
• Privacy
• Advertise with us
• Subscribe