Steven Gaeta stands where the old pumps used to be at 185 Main Street.—Michael Catarevas photo
And then there were two.
Gas stations in New Canaan, that is. At least it’s super-easy to compare fuel prices, since they’re practically neighbors. One is New Canaan Gulf at 36 South Ave., and the other is the Mobil station at 16 South Ave.
The situation became so when the other Gulf station in town, at 185 Main Street, surrendered to the overwhelming cost to replace its in-ground tanks.
Steven Gaeta, owner of what is now simply C&H Auto, a full-time car repair and maintenance shop, had every intention of continuing to sell gas when he made plans to replace the old tanks with new ones. State law requires tanks to be replaced every 30 years, and Gaeta’s were at 28-plus.
“I had the tanks ordered, but as we were working on the project [last month] there was a situation,” he said. “It’s called shoring. The old tank systems needed a burial depth of nine feet. A new tank is a whole confinement system and needs a minimum of 14 feet. That doubled the price, and would have taken a one-month project to a minimum of four months. What do I do with my employees for four months? And with four months of downtime? It made the decision easier to eliminate gasoline.”
Leonard N. Fugaro owns the other Gulf station in town, at 36 South Ave. He also owns stations in Darien, Norwalk and Danbury, has pointed opinions and is an arrow-straight shooter. He acknowledges that he and the Mobil station across the street at 16 South Ave. will pick up the gas customers from Gaeta, but he has no plans to raise prices. He’s been through what Gaeta is experiencing and says there’s plenty of blame to go around.
“Every time you do a tank [replacement] job you’re talking $250,000 and I’ve done three of them in the last five years,” he said. “It’s basically because of the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], and everything that goes along with that. The poor guy pulls his tanks out, wants to put new tanks in, and from what I heard he couldn’t put the double wall tanks as low as he wanted. They make everything hard on us. They’re testing here every day. They’re looking for problems. They’re looking to [have] less gas stations, to let the big companies stay in business and push the small guy out. Then let them raise your gas prices even more.”
Gaeta is planning on going full-bore into car repair, which was a big part of his business anyway. Though he’ll miss the one-on-one with customers he got from pumping gas, he admitted that times change and his business was changing with them.
“It [pumping gas] was an important part of my business,” he said “We were a one-stop shop. Get gas, tires, oil and repairs. But given the cost of retooling, buying new gas pumps, a new computer system, new tanks, and with the new regulations, it just began to escalate to the point where when you do a small volume of gas like we did, it’s not profitable to invest that kind of money back into gas business.
“For years we’ve always been a full-service station. Never self-serve. About 25 years ago we had a population in town that wanted full service, and almost expected it. Today’s generation, they’ll look on their iPhone, find the cheapest gas possible and off they go.”
Gaeta is in the midst of physically remodeling his business. The pumps are gone, and he has more room to maneuver.
“There’s a lot of parking space now, and the day is certainly more manageable,” he said. “Gas required a lot of attention. You had to stop what you were doing and service customers. It was very demanding. Our mainstay in town has been repairs. Gas almost got in way of the repair business.”
Leonard N. Fugaro, owner of New Canaan Gulf at 36 South Ave.—Michael Catarevas photo
While Gaeta is measured in his approach and conversational style, Fugaro minces no words, relishing in giving Trump-style opinions. In fact, he brought up the political landscape when discussing what’s happening and why.
“His [Gaeta’s] intention was to keep the tanks there, because a gas station’s worth a lot more with gas,” he said. “They made it hard on him, but it could have been me. At one point I asked him if he’d sell me the gas station, and he was throwing it around, but now I wouldn’t buy that place, not without gas. I buy and sell gas stations all the time. But now I wouldn’t touch it without gas.
“It’s all these tree huggers. It’s because of all the liberals out there making everything hard. These people that are worried about the ozone and the mooses and the salmon up in Alaska. Those moose and salmon will be around a lot longer than we will. Is everybody else in the world worried about all this? No. It’s just America. We’re gonna save the world.
“I hope this Hillary Clinton don’t get in because then we’ll really be in trouble.”
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