BANGOR – When it comes to gas prices, as the nation goes, so goes Maine. The combination of a cold winter, a strike in oil-rich Venezuela and the threat of war with Iraq has pushed gas prices at the pump through the roof.

“I’m certainly glad I drive a car that gets 35 miles to the gallon,” said Kathy Brooks Rock of Pittsfield, who commutes to the University of Maine in Orono. “I know I’ll take this into consideration when I purchase my next car.”

But Gail Hart of Canaan said all the driving she does is necessary and prices can’t affect her. “I have driving to do and I’ll do it. I have to go to work and doctors’ appointments. If I have to pay more, I will.”

Gas prices have affected everyone who drives, from taxicab drivers to housewives, delivery services to police departments. Prices nationwide averaged $1.66 this week; some locations in Maine have hit $1.99 a gallon.

Business leaders say if high prices persist, they will be forced to pass on increases to consumers. In some cases, they already have.

“It’s bad and it’s going to get worse,” said Rick Tucker, terminal manager for Carrier Trucking in Skowhegan. Tucker’s fleet of 53 tractor-trailers haul lumber, chips and bark along the East Coast. “We paid $2 a gallon this week for diesel in Pennsylvania.

“We are already talking to the lumber companies that we haul for about an 8 percent surcharge,” Tucker said. “The problem is, no one has any money. Someone has to eat the increase or we’ll have to shut down. The bottom line is, you’ll end up paying more for that 2-by-4 at the lumber yard.”

Steve Klimas, owner of Town Taxi in Bangor, said his drivers – who lease their cabs and pay for their own gas – are losing a third of their normal paycheck.

“They are paying $50 a day for fuel,” Klimas said. His 13 taxi drivers were paying $20 to $30 a day for gas just a few weeks ago. Klimas said his taxi rates are set by the city, and “as a last resort” he may seek a rate hike if the fuel prices continue to climb.

Otis Soohey, sales manager at Darling’s Bangor Ford, said the prices have not affected sales of sport utility vehicles and other vehicles with gas-guzzling reputations.

“It is normally a bit slower this time of year anyway,” Soohey said Wednesday. “We haven’t seen any effect yet. Of course, if we go to war, we don’t know what will happen.”

Soohey said he recently was on vacation and rode a snowmobile in the Island Falls area for a week.

“Frankly, I was on vacation and didn’t care what I paid for gas. It was about $1.90 a gallon up there, and it didn’t slow us down at all. It almost didn’t matter. When I came back to Bangor and paid $1.69, I thought I was getting a deal.”

In Newport, Town Manager James Ricker is enforcing a 75-mile per day patrol cap on his police cruisers. Newport is unique in that the town encircles the 5,000-acre Sebasticook Lake. Every trip around the lake is about 25 miles, Ricker said.

Although the cap has been in place for years, Ricker said it is being watched more closely. “I budgeted $5,000 this year for fuel. It looks like that should have been $6,500. I have a contract for diesel fuel, for the firetrucks, public works trucks, but that is only good until March. Who knows what will happen then.”

SAD 48 Superintendent William Braun is also watching his gas contract. Serving six central Maine towns – Corinna, Hartland, Newport, St. Albans, Palmyra and Plymouth – SAD 48’s fleet of 32 buses log 580,000 miles a year.

“We’re locked in at 80 cents a gallon,” he said. “But if that should even go up to $1, that’s a 20 percent increase in my fuel budget.”

“It’s killing me,” hollered an independent fuel truck driver as he trudged through ice and snow to pump No. 2 oil into a Pittsfield home this week.

Other delivery companies are similarly suffering.

FedEx has instituted a 4 percent gas surcharge on all packages, according to spokesperson Tracey Burnette. That will jump to 4.5 percent on March 1.

Adding a surcharge is something Mike Cyr at Cyr Bus Lines in Old Town said he is trying to avoid.

“We’re booked up to next October,” said Cyr, with prices for those trips already quoted. “We buy fuel in bulk, but most of that goes to our 125 school buses. I can’t imagine going to the school districts with a hike.”

Cyr pays the same price at the pump for the 25 motor coaches the company owns as everyone else.

“This is the worst I have ever seen it,” Cyr said. “I guess we’ll be taking a closer look around March 1. Who knows what will happen if we go to war.”

Jim Wood is the transportation director of the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program, part of a statewide network of agencies providing rides to pharmacies, doctors and dental appointments as part of their menu of services. “This is starting to affect us, not only from a budget point of view, but as the price of gas rises, it is becoming more and more difficult to recruit and retain drivers,” Wood said. His drivers receive a predetermined mileage reimbursement that is not going far at the pump.

Gail Ward, Bangor director of the Meals for Me program, said that from the Bangor kitchen, the “meals on wheels” program travels 13 routes each day to deliver hot meals to shut-ins – mostly senior citizens.

“No one has said they can no longer do it,” Ward said. “Most of our volunteers don’t even accept a reimbursement. But we are trying to be very careful and plan our routes as tightly as possible.”

Some companies, such as Schwan’s Sales Enterprises – those mustard-colored grocery home-delivery trucks seen in neighborhoods statewide -positioned themselves during the last gas crunch in the 1970s and aren’t affected by the gas prices.

“We switched all our trucks to propane back then,” said Bangor office manager Ron Bolduc.