Longtime station will focus on service, towing after shutting off pumps
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in Chief
Tuesday will officially be remembered as the day the gas pumps ran dry at Merten’s service station in Burlington.
The station, at 389 Milwaukee Ave., has been pumping gasoline since 1959.
“That’s when my dad turned the key on this place,” current owner John “Junior” Merten said Tuesday afternoon.
And while Merten’s Auto and Towing Service will continue with renewed purpose, the days of selling gasoline at the station are over for the longtime family business.
“With everything changing the way it is we decided to get out (of the gasoline business),” Merten said.
Those changes, which include installing new chip-credit card readers at the pumps, soaring fuel tank insurance costs and more stringent tank inspections, add up to a losing proposition, according to Merten.
“It’s cheaper to pull them than to maintain them,” he said of the three gas pumps at his station, which in recent years has been affiliated with Marathon fuels.
According to Merten, pending inspection regulations will require pressure testing of underground gasoline tanks and some in the industry predict as many as 90 percent of current tanks will fail.
The decision, Merten said with a slight catch in his voice, is bittersweet. While it makes sense from a financial standpoint, it runs contrary to 58 years of family history.
Gasoline has made up about 30 percent of the business in recent years, but the revenue is inconsistent when compared to large operations, such as Kwik Trip that have the ability to buy fuel on the futures market, Merten said.
“One day you’re making good money and the next day, you may be taking a loss (as a result of market-driven price fluctuations),” he said.
“The margins aren’t that great.”
Merten, 64, watched Tuesday as one of his regular customers circled the pumps before stopping to read the “Out of gas” sign posted on each of them. He said it was a scene that was repeated often during the day.
That, he said, is the sad aspect of the change. “I’ll miss the people I’d see every day (at the pumps).”
However, he is confident the business will move forward for future generations of Mertens.
“We’ll still be here doing repairs, towing and other things,” he said, noting his sons John III and Chad work as auto technicians.
“We’ll be around for a long time.”
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