Although gasoline prices have tumbled to the $2-a-gallon range for the first time in years, many Central Coast drivers are saying they still plan to stay home for the long holiday weekend.

While filling up his Mitsubishi Eclipse Monday morning at the Foods Co. gas station at Broadway and Enos Drive, A.J. Saam of Santa Maria said he doesn't plan to drive out of town over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Saam, who recalled the days of 35-cents-a-gallon gas, said his driving pattern hasn't changed from when gas was $4.69 this summer. He was paying $2.12 Monday at Foods Co.

“I'm glad to see prices coming down, he said. “But there is still a need for cars with better gas mileage whether prices are cheap or not.”

Tom Almaguer of Santa Maria, who was also filling up at Foods Co., said it used to cost him $85 to $90 fill the tank of his full-size Dodge truck. Now it's down to $55.

Almaguer said he is still doing the same amount of driving when prices were higher.

A pump over from Almaguer, Sherrie Moss of Santa Maria spent $31.12 to fill the tank of her car. Moss said she plans to visit family in the San Joaquin Valley for Thanksgiving - a trip she would have taken regardless of gas prices.

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Moss said she was in Ohio earlier this month, and gas was $1.87.

“It's unfortunate we pay more (in California),” she said

If Central Coast drivers decide to stay home, they'll be following a predicted nationwide trend.

AAA is forecasting a slight drop in Thanksgiving holiday travel this weekend - the first decline for the holiday since 2002.

According to AAA, 41 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from their homes - a decrease of 600,000 or 1.4 percent - from last year's 41.6 million.

Most Americans who travel from home over the weekend - 33.2 million or 81 percent - are expected to travel by auto, which is a 1.2 percent drop from last year's 33.6 million, AAA said.

According to an unscientific poll at santamariatimes.com last week, 261 of 330 voters, 79 percent, plan to stay home over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

One Santa Maria gas station operator Monday said the price of regular unleaded will drop to below $2 today.

Sanjaya de Silva of the Spirit gas station at the corner of Broadway and Battles Road said the price will go down to $1.99 today from the posted $2.09 price Monday. He said the price cut is a special rate for Thanksgiving and a bucking of the trend to hike prices before a holiday weekend.

Prices will eventually bottom out at between $1.75 to $1.95, he predicted, based on prices that had dropped to $48 for a barrel of crude oil. A barrel of oil was $44 just three and a half years ago, he added.

Crude oil peaked at almost $150 a barrel over the summer.

Judy de Silva, his wife and the station's owner, said they've been selling more gas and giving more change back to customers, leading to shortages of $1 and $5 bills at times.

“They're happy about prices coming down,” she said.

While saying she thinks prices will eventually “shoot back up,” Raquel Cook of Santa Maria who was filling up at Spirit, said she'll likely be doing more driving with the prices down, and plans to drive up to Atascadero over the weekend.

Just like other gas customers, the city of Santa Maria is also paying a lower cost at the pump these days.

According to the latest data, the city is paying about a nickel less a gallon than it was last year from its bulk supplier.

Santa Maria City Manager Tim Ness said the city paid $2.77 a gallon this October compared to $2.82 a gallon in October 2007. The price spiked in June at $4.28, he said, and guessed the price is $2.50 now.

In the past six month, the city's rolling stock of 351 items - including police cars, fire trucks, lawn mowers, sedans, SMAT buses, large vehicles at the landfill and others - has gone through 280,000 gallons in gas and diesel fuel, he said.

The 2008-09 fiscal year budget projects $1.25 million in fuel costs compared to $1.4 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year. However, the actual cost for 2007-08 was about $1 million, he said.

“Now that they're (gas prices) lower, we'll monitor the prices closer to make adjustments,” Ness said.

Of the $1.25 million for the current fiscal year which runs from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, $700,000 is for diesel and $550,000 is for gas, he said.

The bulk rate is generally 15 to 20 percent lower, he said, but the margin has been dwindling over time.

In the Santa Ynez Valley, prices are lower than $2 at two gas stations.

At Tom's Gas and Market on East Highway 246 in Buellton on Monday afternoon, the lowest price was $1.95.

Tom Lee, owner of Tom's, said the price will possibly go lower depending on nearby competition.

It was $1.96 at the ARCO at East Highway 246 and McMurray Road on Monday.

Lee said he's never seen such a drastic drop in prices in more than 10 years in the gas business and isn't sure if the prices have bottomed out yet.

“I don't know right now,” he said. “Even experts don't know.”

The price of gas ebbs and flows “in tandem” with the stock market, with higher gas prices when the economy is better, he said.

In Lompoc, prices were just above $2 at a number of gas stations on Sunday night.

At the Spirit gas station on H Street and Central Avenue, gas was $2.01. Two gas stations on opposite corners at H Street and Central Avenue - USA Gasoline and Valero - were down to $2.05

Like many others, the city of Lompoc is looking at lower fuel costs cautiously while exploring buying vehicles that use less gas and get better gas mileage.

Anthony Garcia, fleet and facilities maintenance supervisor for the city of Lompoc, said lower fuel prices for the city is “good for us,” however “noting is certain” in relation to prices.

“We're dealing with the unknown,” he said.

For the 2007-08 fiscal year, the city of Lompoc budgeted $743,229 for fuel, but ended up spending more than $918,000. The city uses 270,000 gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel a year - bought in bulk.

The city is being “proactive,” Garcia said, and is looking into hybrid vehicles and alternative fuels. One possibility , he said, is downsizing to one-person vehicles for meter readers, for example.

Guadalupe City Administrator Carolyn Galloway-Cooper said the city has seen about a 20 percent reduction is gas costs, mostly for the police and streets departments.

November 25, 2008