By RYAN WILSON

Special to The Telegram

Memorial Day plans include staying home and traveling less, people filling up recently at Garden City gas stations.

The high price of gas -- ranging from $3.48 to $3.69 a gallon for regular unleaded Tuesday afternoon -- may downsize holiday plans, motorists from Garden City and the surrounding area said.

Brett Harman, Garden City, said gas prices are "not very good right now," and he expects them to increase.

"I think it's bad for the economy," Chauncey Graham, Salina, said.

Sam Sandow of Wichita agrees.

"Gas prices suck right now, I can't disagree with that," he said.

Connie Rodriquez, Garden City, Alexander Hernandez, Garden City, and Graham said they planned to stay home for the holiday. Harman said he planned to eat out and take it easy on the holiday.

"We just can't travel with gas the way it is," Rodriquez said. "We'd be spending more on gas than we'd spend for the (rest of the) vacation."

If fuel prices were better, Rodriquez said, she and her family would spend a day outside of Garden City.

One motorist with travel plans said she will cut how much she travels on the holiday. Sandow, who works for a pharmaceutical company in Wichita, said she planned to go boating with her boyfriend for Memorial Day. Higher gas this year means they will go to a closer lake, she said.

Motorists disagreed on whether a tax holiday on fuel proposed by presidential candidates would help relieve the crunch motorists are feeling because of high fuel prices.

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain have proposed a tax holiday from federal fuel taxes for the summer. The federal government taxes fuel at 18.4 cents a gallon.

Graham and Sandow said a break from fuel taxes would not help them.

"What's it going to matter? It's just going to go back up," Sandow said.

But Rodriquez disagrees.

"I really think (a fuel tax) holiday would help just because the economy is in really bad shape," Rodriquez said. "(Gas) is really high for anyone to be able to live on."

Motorists said they would not necessarily buy more fuel on a fuel-tax holiday, but would use the money saved in other ways.

Rodriquez said she would use it to pay bills, buy food and "stuff we really need." Hernandez said he would use the money to shop.

The price of fuel has affected area farmers, too. Kenny Merg, who farms 18 miles east of Garden City on Pole Line Road, said fuel prices have "put a big crimp," in his farming operation.

"I should have bought fuel in advance, but hindsight is 20/20," Merg said.