Local Gas Impact In Duluth
DULUTH, Minn. — Justonee Jones has kept an eye on his gas tank. Jones is a football coach at St. Scholastica and mostly drives back and forth to work. From this week to the last time, he filled up, he saw gas prices drop.
“Before they were in the mid three dollars, I would say the last month at least normally now around $2.99 to $2.70. Which is something I noticed even when going home to Texas. It’s the same thing,” said Jones.
Scot Starling is a RAD Tech at St. Luke’s Hospital and drives about 50 miles each week. He has also seen prices drop. “About twenty cents, so a few bucks a tank,” said Starling.
He says the impact on a weekly basis isn’t that significant, but he did notice the difference when he took a recent longer road trip to Arkansas. “I saved well over $100 on that. It all helps,” explained Starling.
Scot added that he is glad he doesn’t have to peel off a $50 bill every time he wants to get his gas tank filled.
Kris Garey is a retired pastor who works part time at Barnes & Noble. She and her husband Mike take regular trips to the Twin Cities, Madison Wisconsin, and Two Harbors. Kris is aware of gas prices coming down and additionally noticed that her friends are buying more fuel-efficient vehicles.
“If you compare it to a couple of years ago when gas was almost four dollars a gallon, people are taking trips to visit their families. During COVID, we got a stored up need to be together and people are going ahead and spending that money to go on a trip, or doing things like buying a vehicle where they can go on trips still,” said Garey.
Gas Buddy, a self-reporting site that collects pricing information by location supports what Kris, Justonee and Scot have found. According to the site, prices in Duluth hovered around $2.74. An exception is Ely, where prices ranged from $3.24 to a high of $3.29.
In the Northland, the reduced gas prices are a welcome break. Many will agree with Justonee when he says low prices will allow him to have just a little more in the till for gas the next time.
