While Keizer businesses and public agencies are noticing the rising fuel prices, some are still waiting to assess the impact.
According to AAA, drivers are paying the highest spring break gas prices since 2022 because the conflict in Iran has spiked oil prices.
As of Monday, March 23, the average price for regular gas in Salem was $4.76 per gallon, an increase from $3.77 last month, according to AAA. The average price for diesel in Salem was $5.88 per gallon.
A Keizertimes survey of six gas stations in Keizer on Monday showed prices for regular grade gas ranging from $4.59 per gallon at VP Racing Fuels to $4.84 at the 76 stations.
Local businesses such as Keizer Florist and Loren’s Sanitation told Keizertimes they are absorbing the costs of rising fuel prices rather than passing them along to customers.
Marcus Gerber, general manager of Loren’s Sanitation, said fuel is one of the business’s highest operating costs and it is always focused on remaining efficient with strategies such as reducing idling time and tight routes.
He said in an email that the business has seen costs per gallon “almost doubling” since late February, “but it’s not something new for us to manage.”
“We buy fuel at market rates but in bulk, which helps us smooth things out a bit and avoid some of the day-to-day swings,” Gerber wrote. “Our supplier has been great about staying in touch, but they’re dealing with the same unpredictability we are.”
Jessie Hartwell, owner of Keizer Florist, said the business makes deliveries daily in Keizer and elsewhere in the Willamette Valley. She said the business spent $48 on gas for the business car on Saturday, Feb. 28, and $63 on Saturday, March 7.
While Keizer government and public safety agencies, including the Keizer Police Department, the city of Keizer, and Marion County Fire District 1 have contracts with suppliers for fuel and receive discounts, the agencies said market fluctuations still affect their cost of fuel.
Lt. Trevor Wenning of the Keizer Police Department said the agency used 27,677 gallons of fuel in 2025, spending $82,058 and an average of $2.96 per gallon. As of Tuesday, March 17, Wenning said in an email that the average price spent per gallon without taxes has climbed from $2.80 to $3.03 over two weeks.
At the start of this year, he said police were spending an average of $1.98 per gallon on gas. Wenning said the police budget for fuel use is $80,000, and roughly $31,000 of that amount remains.
Tim Wood, assistant city manager, said the city is billed monthly for fuel used across police, public works and parks departments, and he expects the city will see the impact of rising fuel costs in the next bill.
Wood said the city typically spends between $6,000 and $6,500 a month on fuel, and roughly $120,000 a year.
A Feb. 28 invoice for the city’s public works department, which includes fuel spent through the parks department, shows the city spent roughly $2,836 on 932 gallons of gas.
Kyle McMann, chief of Marion County Fire District 1, said his fire district budgets roughly $175,000 a year for fuel and is currently “doing okay.” He said the district will need to monitor if the year-long budget will be impacted.
“When things are more expensive, those dollars don’t go as far,” McMann said. “It’s not something that we can necessarily control, because we need to respond to an alarm.”
Brian Butler, operations chief with Keizer Fire District, said the district receives gas from the city of Keizer in bulk approximately every six months and does not pay taxes on fuel. The most recent invoice, dated Feb. 11, showed $24,000 worth of fuel, or 7,336 gallons, between July and December.
Butler emphasized that fuel use is a small part of the district’s budget, and said in an email that rising prices for fire engines, ambulances, health insurance premiums, medical supplies and medical equipment have a “far greater” impact on the district’s finances than fuel costs.
He said the current fiscal year budget for fuel is $52,000.
NEWS TIP? Contact reporter Krista Kroiss at [email protected].
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