BUCKEYE LAKE, Ohio — With summer weather on the way, the continued increase in gas prices is now affecting summer activities, from lawn care to hitting the water.
Scott Cooper owns The Lawn Doctor of Greater Columbus with his wife, and has been providing lawn care services to the community for over eight years. Cooper said the entire industry has changed with what he calls, “The COVID Catastrophe.”
“Our costs are up quite a bit from last year,” Cooper says. “We're paying more obviously, but we have to make sure our routes are as efficient as possible so we're not wasting gas or unnecessarily going to an area unless we have enough work to justify the costs.”
Cooper said they had to raise prices by 10% due to the rise in prices, supply chain issues and attracting more employees.
“We've raised our wages by 30% and we've increased benefits, I have bonuses,” Cooper says. Cooper is thankful his customer retention remains high as he continue to increase effiency.
Gas prices are not only hurting people on land, but also on the water. Boaters at Buckeye Lake Marina though say they're still hitting the water, just using more fuel efficient practices.
“My wife and I go boating about twice a week,” Manson Collins said. “This is a lifestyle for a lot of people. People come out here and spend the whole weekend."
Collins said he grew up on the lake with his family and won’t give it up, no matter how high gas increases.
“With the price of gas now, a lot of times we'll just go out and float and take our iPads, we are zooming up and down the lake quite as frequent as we used to,” Collins said.
For those trying to save on gas, he suggests cruising instead of throttling and turning off your engine to engine the water without burning fuel.
"Obviously gas prices are high, the the last few weekends are the busiest I've seen out here on the lake,” says Tim Levacy of Buckeye Lake Marina. He says people are still hitting the water, just taking less trips farther away. “Instead they're coming here on the lake and spending their weekends here locally, it's cheaper for them to do that.”
Levacy says his family’s marina provides the higher-grade recreational ethanol and alcohol-free fuel at a lower cost so boaters can stay on the water.
We try to make sure people have the cheapest price of fuel on the water or around the lake so they can keep boating out here,” Levacy says.