News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Some good economic news… Check those signs. Gas prices across the Upper Cumberland have fallen below $4 in many places.
Clay County resident Andy Strong said he is filling up his gas tank while prices are low before they may rise again.
“I feel a lot better than when it was $5 a gallon,” Strong said. “I actually just saw it was $3.92 and I had about half a tank, but I thought I will go ahead and fill up because you never know when it’s going to go up again.”
Strong said the prices have certainly impacted his travel plans. He said he is reluctant to travel as much due to the high prices.
“I don’t travel near as much, just kind of where we have to go and need to go and try to do everything while we’re out,” Strong said. “We try to cut back on the gas because it comes straight out of the budget.”
Tennessee Tech student and Pickett County resident John Lee said he does not live on campus which forces him to travel a long distance so the gas prices have impacted him greatly.
“It’s a very promising sign to see the prices going down for us as college students and for the economy as a whole,” Lee said. “As we know, prices have been rising with everything, not just gas, and it’s really nice to see it dip under $4.”
Putnam County resident and local business owner Andrew Jestes said he feels wonderful about the price decrease.
“We use a lot of gas, I’m a small business owner here in town, and the price increase that we had been experiencing for the last several months has really affected the bottom line,” Jestes said.
Jestes said he and his family recently went on a vacation they had planned months in advance. He said they were not pleased with gas prices elsewhere either as they traveled to the beach.
“We didn’t really like the prices that we were seeing as we went to Florida from Tennessee,” Jestes said. “We noticed that the gas prices actually went up a little bit the farther South we went.”
Jestes and others shared personal examples of how gas prices have impacted their travel plans, purchases, and more.
Oil prices fell seven percent Tuesday, bringing the average price under $100. That’s down from $140 in March. Economists said growing concern about a worldwide recession and decreasing demand are impacting prices.
