Coles County resident Cassandra Livermore said traveling for her and her family is becoming difficult due to the increased gas prices.

Across the county, gas prices sit at an average of $5.01, a $2 increase from last year.

To manage money, along with many other Charleston residents, she partially fills her gas tank.

Sharing a vehicle with her husband and taking her kids back and forth from daycare, Livermore said they’ve had to make sacrifices to afford gas.

“I might not be able to afford one of our bills or something as easily because we’re also on single income,” Livermore said.

In Illinois, as of June 16, the average cost of gas per gallon is $5.54 and in Coles County, the price is around $5.24.

In the United States, Illinois ranks 7 for the most expensive gas prices. The most expensive is in California at $6.43 per gallon and the cheapest is in Georgia at $4.50 per gallon.

Like Livermore, Landa Farris filled her tank up partially.

“It just makes it harder to get to work and get home and everywhere you need to go to the store and everything because they’re so high,” Farris said. “It’s like 20 bucks used to be able to fill my tank up and now it takes me about 40 bucks to fill my tank up.”

Farris said she expects prices will rise as the fourth of July weekend gets closer.

“I think that you know, reasonably priced gas prices would be okay, just the way that they’ve skyrocketed out of nowhere, it just hurt everybody really bad and with the holidays coming up, it’s only gonna get worse,” Farris said.

Jennifer Bishop, an employee of Lambo’s on Lincoln Ave., said people have come in to complain to her about the prices.

Chase Williams said the prices don’t affect him much, but his family faces hardships with the prices.

His dad races at the dirt track and uses a lot of fuel, so he ends up spending a chunk of money on gas.

Williams said he worries for those who can’t easily afford it.

“It’s affected us but it’s not that bad,” Williams said. “I can’t imagine for people who don’t have two people with a full-time job in their household.”

Katja Benz is a senior English major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or at kkbenz@eiu.edu.