Gas Pumps

THE Q: With gasoline prices soaring toward $4 a gallon, more eagle-eyed drivers are paying closer attention to the accuracy of gas pumps as they fill up. Last week, two unrelated but similar queries came in. http://www.mda.state.md.us/weights_measures to print out a complaint form and fax it to 410-841-2765. Once the Weights and Measures division is notified, program manager Kenneth Ramsburg says, "We try to get an inspector in the field to go out that same day the complaint came in, and if not the same day, then the very next day. We do take these complaints very seriously."

Ben Woolsey of CreditCards.com warns against the pitfalls of using your credit or debit card at the gas pump. The first problem:   Woolsey says station owners sometimes put limit on transactions of $75 to $125. Given fast-rising gas prices, it's possible some gas guzzlers won't be able to fill up. The other problem: Your card company can put a block or hold on your card - reducing the credit limit - when you're making a purchase at the pump. The block is temporary, lasting up to $72 hours, but limits your line of credit by $75 to $100, Woolsey says.

State police are searching for the driver of an auto who caused about $16,000 damage to two fuel pumps at Piper's Wine & Spirit Barn near Manchester on Tuesday night."

A group of North Laurel residents said they'd like to hear more about plans to develop the old Laurel Dodge site into a Royal Farms, even if it means changing the zoning laws created to revitalize U.S. 1. Royal Farms is considering purchasing nearly three acres on North Washington Boulevard between Davis and Madison avenues to build new convenience store that would include gas pumps and a car wash, employing 20 full-time workers. But before the company could redevelop the space, it would need a change in the zoning laws for the area, created to spruce up the aging corridor and facilitate new mixed-use development.

The county Planning Board yesterday failed to approve a plan to install gas pumps at the new High's convenience store in the West Friendship Shopping Center.Members voted 2-2, which is one vote short of a recommendation to approve the zoning special exception needed for the pumps.Two members, Chairwoman Joan Lancos and Theodore Mariani, said the plan met the requirements for approval, but opposing member Cathy Hartman argued that High's did not prove a gas station was needed in the area. The other opponent, Dale Schumacher, worried that the three pumps would harm the surrounding neighborhood.

For the second time in three years, West Friendship residents are fighting what they fear would be a pit stop for Interstate 70 motorists.They fear that three gas pumps planned by High's Dairy Stores Inc. would pollute an adjacent creek, strain the ability of nearby land to handle additional septic waste and create traffic problems.Rick Grimes, who lives behind the West Friendship Shopping Center property where the High's convenience store opened in June, said his concern is that the pumps would generate more bathroom stops than gas stops.

The county administrative hearing officer has turned down a Baltimore company's request to add gasoline pumps to a planned expansion of its Severn convenience store.Cloverland Farms Dairy Inc. wanted to build two pump islands at Route 174 and Telegraph Road, as part of a plan to tear down the existing 1,000-square-foot store and replace it with a 2,880-square-foot structure.The store expansion is allowed under general commercial zoning, but hearing officer Robert C. Wilcox denied the company's request for variances and a special exception to allow the self-service gas station.

The Howard County Board of Appeals will decide Tuesday whether High's of Baltimore Inc. should be granted a special exception to operate a gas station in a Lisbon shopping center.Two gas pumps at the proposed convenience store near Old Frederick and Woodbine roads are the center of a community debate.Neighbors argued at a 4 1/2 -hour Board of Appeals hearing Tuesday that the motorists using nearby Interstate 70 would flock to the High's for food and gas, creating hazards in the already congested area.

Some Lisbon residents are furious over the Howard County Board of Appeals' decision to let a High's convenience store have gas pumps at its planned store at Lisbon Center, warning of traffic congestion and competitive damage to other local businesses.The board approved the pumps 5-0 Tuesday night. Only three of the five members who voted had been present for a June 6 hearing on the issue of having pumps at the store."I make my living off of gas sales," said Larry Flickinger, who owns Lisbon Citgo, a gas station three-quarters of a mile from the High's store.

The gas pumps were turned on this week at Foster's Country Store near West Friendship, ending a five-month struggle that cost its new owner dearly."If I didn't have things to liquidate, personal belongings, I would have been buried. I would have never been able to make payments," said Mr. Foster, who bought the store at Route 144 and Triadelphia Road in March from Beulah Gearhart, whose family owned the store since the 1940s.To make the gas pumps and tank safer, Mr. Foster replaced them, set them further from the road and away from the intersection.

Hey, NFL fans, are you ready for some … labor negotiations? Ready for a lockout and weeks and weeks of eye-glazing "news" about unions de-certifying and anti-trust violations and court rulings, and who wants what and what it all means? No, me either. But it sure looks as if it's coming. The big question to me is this: How can Joe Sixpack pick a side in this ridiculous fight between the league owners and players. Are you kidding? It's like rooting for Bank of America vs. Wells Fargo.

Gasoline prices have been rising over the past month as revolutionary sentiment roiled the oil-rich Middle East. Now, drivers are bracing for more volatility at the pump, fueled by the latest turmoil in Libya. The average price of regular gasoline in Maryland on Wednesday was $3.14 a gallon — 14 cents higher than in December, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. Analysts say the price could reach $3.50 to $3.75 a gallon in the coming months. Libya accounts for only about 2 percent of the world's oil production, but unrest in the country — where dictator Moammar Gadhafi has been accused of ordering troops and mercenaries to kill unarmed protesters — has stoked fears of increased instability across the region.

An Eastern Shore man pumped gasoline into the car in which his estranged wife was sitting and then set it on fire Friday night, causing an explosion and sending both to the hospital, according to Maryland State Police. An arrest warrant was issued for Pernell Clanton Jr., 47, of the 100 block of Forest Drive in Grasonville, charging him with attempted first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, first-degree malicious burning, first- and second-degree arson, and two counts of malicious destruction of property over $500.

Hurricane Ike created a wave of price spikes at gas stations across the country yesterday, including those in the Baltimore area. Fears that the huge storm would cut off supply led to wide disparities in prices state by state, and even block by block. The contrast in prices yesterday evening was stark at Cold Spring Lane and Falls Road. At the Texaco, the price of regular was $3.89 a gallon - an increase of 20 cents yesterday. But at the Exxon across Cold Spring, regular was selling for $3.49.

WASHINGTON - Standing alongside a row of gas pumps at a Shell station, Rocky Twyman joined hands with several cohorts, prayed to God for economic and social relief then sang "We Shall Overcome" - inserting the lyrics "We'll have lower gas prices" the second time around. For nearly a month, Twyman, a Rockville resident who serves as music director for a Baltimore church, has been praying at gas pumps - and anywhere else he is welcome - asking God to lower prices. Of course, since he started his prayer campaign, or what he calls a movement, the price of gas just keep inching upwards.

THE Q: With gasoline prices soaring toward $4 a gallon, more eagle-eyed drivers are paying closer attention to the accuracy of gas pumps as they fill up. Last week, two unrelated but similar queries came in. http://www.mda.state.md.us/weights_measures to print out a complaint form and fax it to 410-841-2765. Once the Weights and Measures division is notified, program manager Kenneth Ramsburg says, "We try to get an inspector in the field to go out that same day the complaint came in, and if not the same day, then the very next day. We do take these complaints very seriously."

For the second time in three years, West Friendship residents are fighting what they fear would be a pit stop for Interstate 70 motorists.They fear that three gas pumps planned by High's Dairy Stores Inc. would pollute an adjacent creek, strain the ability of nearby land to handle additional septic waste and create traffic problems.Rick Grimes, who lives behind the West Friendship Shopping Center property where the High's convenience store opened in June, said his concern is that the pumps would generate more bathroom stops than gas stops.

For the most part, Maryland motorists are getting a gallon of gasoline when they pay for a gallon of gasoline, the state Department of Agriculture reported yesterday. "Sometimes motorists are getting a little more, sometimes a little less," said Louis E. Straub, chief of the department's Weights and Measures Section. In response to a 15 percent jump in consumer complaints this year, the division recently completed a two-week inspection. It tested the accuracy of 7,700 gas pump meters, slightly more than 20 percent of those in the state.

The Harford County Development Advisory Committee serves as a forum for the review of subdivision and site plans submitted to the Department of Planning and Zoning by those seeking building permits. The committee will review the following proposals at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the second-floor conference room of the Harford County government building, 220 S. Main St., Bel Air: High's of Joppa Location: North side of Pulaski Highway, east of Mountain Road. Developer: Magnolia One LLC/High's of Baltimore/Messick & Associates.