Regular unleaded was going for $2.479 a gallon at the Bimor station in downtown Coos Bay Friday. Some cities in California are already seeing fuel prices over $3 per gallon. World Photo by Madeline Steege
A steep run-up in the cost of gasoline around the Bay Area is leveling off, with prices hovering around the $2.50 mark.
Between noon and 1 p.m. on Friday, all but one of 13 service stations in Coos Bay, North Bend and Empire posted prices no higher than they were on April 13. Eight of the stations charged the same rate for 87-octane unleaded fuel as a week earlier.
Three fuel centers - Bimor on Fourth Street in Coos Bay, Mobil on Virginia Avenue in North Bend and Astro in Empire - dropped their prices for unleaded by 7 or more cents during the past week. Only the recently opened Safeway station in North Bend charged a higher price than before, $2.46 - a penny more than on April 13.
Per-gallon costs ranged from $2.46 at three gas stations (including the Safeway) to $2.52 at the two Chevron centers in Coos Bay. Prices were at similar levels elsewhere on the South Coast, with a Shell station in Bandon offering unleaded for $2.49 and a Shell center in Reedsport charging $2.43.
Meanwhile, the lone service station in Charleston was listed as the third-most expensive place in Oregon to buy fuel. As of 1:15 p.m., Davey Jones Locker's price for unleaded gas was listed at $2.65 on the Web site OregonGasPrices.com, which allows viewers to record fuel costs statewide. Three stations in the Brookings-Harbor area also placed sixth among the 15 priciest fuel outlets, at $2.59 per gallon.
The Oregon fuel cost site reported 15 stations offering gas for $2.32 or $2.33 a gallon, the lowest in the state. Twelve of the outlets were in the Salem-Keizer area, where drivers have had the lowest fuel costs over the last several months.
The statewide average fuel cost was $2.45 a gallon on Friday, still far above the $2.22 national average and 28 cents above the level of a month ago.
It is not yet clear what impact the newest spike in fuel costs will have on an active state investigation of Coos County pricing policies, a probe covering both station owners and fuel distributors. An earlier round of price increases inspired more than 100 county residents to file complaints with the office of Attorney General Hardy Myers, leading the state to open its inquiry in August.
Calls on Friday afternoon to Jan Margosian, Myers' consumer protection coordinator, were not returned.
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I am sad to see the tower go..I used to take my children (Now grown) there to fish for the perch under the pilings. But I am even sadder to see the originally proposed boardwalk will no longer be a part of the development. I was looking forward to walking my Grandchildren down it.
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