Why is the Rt. 191 station with $1.29 gas closed? Ask the owner -- if you can find him

Dan Hartzell | The Road Warrior

June 20, 2008

Q: There's a long-closed gas station on Route 191 in Bethlehem Township, just north of the Route 22 overpass. Frozen in time, its price board lists regular unleaded at $1.29.9 per gallon. How long ago was that??

Bill Trexler

Moore Township

A:A buck twenty-nine? That must have beenÂthe 1980s? Or no, it only seems that way.

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The station at 4063 Nazareth Pike, Bethlehem Township, might be revived some day, Bill, but dollar-twenty-nine gas is gone.

The government's Energy Information Agency predicts price stabilization at about $4.15 this summer, and expects the rate to hang around the $4 mark through 2009.

It's lucky they have the former station cordoned off, 'cause at $1.29.9 they'd probably have motorists lining up at the pumps every morning, waiting for the dilapidated place to open.

Township officials couldn't pinpoint the time of the business's closure.

The Warrior couldn't reach the owner of the former business, and still owner of the property, Arminder Singh, formerly of Hasbrouck Heights, N.J. But then, the authorities can't reach him either.

Singh, who was 33 in January 2003, also owned gas stations in Phillipsburg and White Township, Warren County. Regarding his operation of those stations, a Warren County grand jury indicted him that month for allegedly writing $130,000 worth of bad checks to fuel suppliers and failing to pay $75,000 in state fuel taxes.

Singh had been arrested and charged in May 2002, but failed to appear that June for an arraignment. Singh remains on the lam to this day, according to officials.

If he was arrested in May 2002, it's likely the Bethlehem Township site would have been closed by then, even though it wasn't directly related to the allegations against Singh.

Here's another clue: The County Weights and Measures inspection sticker, whereby officials try to ensure you're getting a gallon of gas when you pay for a gallon, remains on the pumps.

The last inspection was made in July 2001. Given his arrest in May 2002, Singh must have shuttered the place between, say, November 2001 and May 2002.

That would fit with the national-average pricing data from the EIA. The agency combines all three grades of gas, but the price at the end of October 2001 was $1.27.7 per gallon. By late December, it dropped to $1.13.7, then slowly rose to $1.38.2 by late March 2002.

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