Gas

Hagerstown Police have charged a man with trying to rob a local gas station Monday morning. A masked man entered the BP station at 1760 Dual Highway at about 1:54 a.m., police said in a news release. The robber displayed a knife and approached a clerk behind the counter. The clerk struggled with the robber, who suffered a cut on his hand and then left, police said. A police K-9 followed a blood trail to an apartment on Edgewood Hill Circle, near the intersection of Dual Highway and Edgewood Drive.

Hagerstown Police are investigating an armed robbery Wednesday morning at gas station on Dual Highway. The robbery at the BP station at 1760 Dual Highway was reported at 1:33 a.m., police said in a news release. A male armed with a knife robbed the store of an undisclosed amount of money and cigarettes, police said. He fled on foot. The robber wore a mask, a gray hooded sweat shirt, a black stocking hat and blue jeans, the release said. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call HPD's Criminal Investigations Division at 301-790-3700, ext. 234.

Hagerstown-based ThompsonGas said Friday it has acquired three propane marketing companies in two southern states, making it the 16th-largest retail propane company in the United States. The ThompsonGas subsidiary, ThompsonGas-Smokies LLC, purchased Drivers Energy of Dawson, Ga., the Quality/Ideal Gas group in Griffin, Ga., and Tarheel Oil and Propane in North Wilkesboro, N.C., a company news release said. “We are continuing to greatly expand our presence in the Southeast and the whole East Coast of the United States,” President J. Randall Thompson said in the release.

Some local governments in Franklin County, Pa., are considering whether converting municipal vehicles to run on natural gas could provide long-term cost savings. Waynesboro's borough manager, Lloyd Hamberger, said this week he thinks his municipality could save $1 to $1.25 per gallon equivalent compared to what it pays now for gasoline. In the Borough of Chambersburg, municipal officials are taking steps to install a fueling facility on a leased site at Exit 14 of Interstate 81. That facility would serve private and commercial fleets as well as any converted municipal vehicles.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is monitoring the cleanup of a gasoline spill that occurred Monday night at the Sheetz at 245 S. Washington St. in Berkeley Springs. Approximately 350 gallons of gasoline spilled onto the pavement when an overflow occurred while a truck was filling an underground storage tank on the property, according to a news release from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The cause of the overflow and subsequent spill is still being investigated, the release states.

Residents in about four square blocks of Martinsburg were advised to evacuate after a natural gas line was struck by city utility workers Thursday morning in the area of North Tennessee Avenue and West Race Street, according to Martinsburg Fire Department Lt. David Weller. No one was injured, Weller said. The city was working on water lines when the gas line was struck about 8:13 a.m. Thursday, according to Weller and a Berkeley County Emergency Services supervisor. The evacuation was in effect for about an hour and motorists were detoured around the accident site, which is in Martinsburg's west end near War Memorial Park.

ThompsonGas celebrated the grand opening of its new retail showroom at 6708 Old National Pike in Boonsboro on Sept. 29. The celebration featured a live radio broadcast and giveaways, food from the grill, other refreshments, entertainment and activities. The store offered specials through Oct. 6, and gave away a gas grill and hundreds of gallons of propane to customers. ThompsonGas, with headquarters in Hagerstown, is among the fastest-growing propane companies in the country. It is the 19th-largest retail propane operator in the United States, serving nearly 170,000 customers in 10 states.

After an unusual rise in gas prices during the fall that led to record-highs in parts of the country, gas prices fell this week nationally and locally, according to statistics on the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report website at fuelgaugereport.aaa.com. Gas prices Tuesday averaged $3.77 a gallon nationally for regular grade gas, down from $3.81 the previous week. In Maryland, prices dropped from $3.70 to $3.69 per gallon, and dropped four cents around Hagerstown from $3.84 to $3.80.

For the first time since early July, gas prices dropped this week nationally and locally, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic's website at midatlantic.aaa.com. The national average for regular-grade gasoline was at $3.80 per gallon Wednesday, down from $3.85 last week, and the priced locally dropped from $3.85 to $3.82 per gallon, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Area residents remained skeptical about what lies ahead at the pump. “We'll have a break for a few weeks and people will say gas is looking good, but it's not going to be any relief,” Hagerstown resident Frank Daymude, 29, said.