LIers feel the pinch as gas prices rise

With gasoline prices heading toward $4 a gallon for regular -- and higher for plus and premium grades -- Long Islanders interviewed along the Route 110 corridor in Suffolk County Monday said they were feeling the pinch.

Some said they would drive less and try to cut other expenses. One planned to trade in a gas guzzler for a more efficient vehicle. But many said driving is usually a necessity, and are resigned to the inevitable: It will cost them more in the weeks and months ahead.

Cecil Morgan, 42, of Amityville, salesman

"What it means to me is I have less money for everything else," Morgan said, laughing joylessly as he pondered the impact of rising gas prices.

"I try to drive less. It's hard, but you gotta pay it. It doesn't matter really," Morgan said as he finished pumping $16 worth of gas, at $3.83 for regular, into his Pontiac Monday afternoon at the BP station on Route 110 in Amityville.

"It's a thought that you have to drive less. But how do you actually do that? On Long Island there's not really a way to do that. . . . I have kids, one of them works at Applebee's in Melville. The other one works at a drugstore in Copiague. They don't drive. At 9 o'clock he needs to get picked up," Morgan said of the son who works at Applebee's. "There's no buses running. So what do you do? You gotta go get him. Eight o'clock, the other one needs to be picked up. There's no buses running after 7 p.m. You gotta go get him. There's no options. You just have to do it. It's not about the price at that point. You have to do it."

Rich Gumersell, 52, of Stony Brook, salesman

"I think it's not a good thing because people have to make decisions about gas [versus] other consumer expenses, said Gumersell, while standing at a gas pump at 7-Eleven in Farmingdale, where regular was $3.73 a gallon. Gumersell said he routinely got gas at this station because it doesn't charge more for paying by credit card like others do.

"I need to drive for work." But if the price keeps rising, Gumersell said, "It would definitely impact driving for vacations," meaning he'd cut back. "If [gas prices] continue to go up, yes. If it got above $4 a gallon, it would impact me more."

Gwen Wofford, 53, of Amityville, a nurse

Wofford put in $35 worth of gas, about half a tank's worth -- at $3.83 for regular -- into her Honda Pilot SUV at the Gulf gas station on Route 110 South near Great Neck Road in Amityville.

"I've got an SUV. It takes a lot of gas all the time. I buy gas every other day." She has no choice. "I have to go to work" in Rockville Centre, said Wofford.

As gas prices rise, Wofford said she has made some adjustments. "Between the price of gas and food, I wouldn't be going out a lot. My priority is work." That means, she said, no "extra trips to the store. I try to do it all at one time," rather than making shopping trips several times a week. "With [costs up in] heating oil and grocery prices, I just can't afford it."

If gas prices soar to $5 a gallon, car trips to visit family down South would be less frequent, she said. "We used to make the trip once a year. Now I don't do it as often."

Alicia Green, 23, of Huntington Station, a waitress

"I think it's ridiculous. I just noticed today that I was passing some stations, it's like $4.19. I saw a station at $4.19 for regular. This is $3.89; that's not bad," she said of the price at a Hess gas station on Route 110 in Farmingdale.

While she's often on the lookout for the cheapest gas, she stopped at the Hess "because I was on my way home and I was running out of gas. At these prices, I'm always filling up when I'm on empty." Monday, she said, "I'm only going to put $10 in" her Honda Civic.

"It's hard right now, you know. Business is slow."

Rick Krivi, 51, of South Huntington, manager of a hockey rink

"They should just have dollar bills going in there instead of gas," said Krivi, gesturing at his gas tank, as he pumped gas at a Gulf station at Routes 110 and 24 in Farmingdale, where regular was selling for $3.95 a gallon for cash and $4.05 if paying by credit card.

"I am going down to a 6-cylinder truck because of gas prices," said Krivi, who drives an 8-cylinder Chevy Silverado pickup. Another savings strategy for Krivi and his wife, he said, was to make use of discounts on gas from Stop & Shop's points program.

He's also "put in a wood-burning fireplace [in his home] to save on oil." He's taken such steps, Krivi said, "because [prices] are really going through the roof."