ANDERSON — Kara Crisler is surprised how many people have driven around an orange barrier fencing stretched across the opening of a recently vacated Swifty gas station on Eighth Street.
“A lot of people went around that fence,” she said.
Crisler, an office manager of Hart Properties located near the gas station, was even more surprised to learn there could be fuel in the underground tanks on the unmanned site.
“That is a little disturbing,” Crisler said.
Earlier this month, the Swifty gas stations closed. The signage at each location was covered and entrances were blocked, but customers say there was no warning prior to the closings.
Both the previous owner of the facilities, Swifty Oil Co. Inc. in Seymour, and the new owners, Ricker Oil Co., declined to comment on the gas stations.
State officials, however, say they are keeping a close eye on the former Swifty locations and are in active communication with Ricker Oil Co. to ensure there are no safety issues, especially since two of the Madison County sites are in some form of cleanup or an investigation phase for fuel contamination.
“There is no concern for the public,” said Amy Smith, a public information officer for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. “We have no reports of contamination reaching people via ground water or vapors.”
Smith said both the Anderson Swifty location, 605 E. Eighth St., and the Alexandria Swifty location, 205 S. Park Ave., are being monitored or are in a cleanup stage from contaminations that occurred in 2011 and 2005 respectively.
“These can take a long time to investigate and clean up,” she said.
In its communications with the state, Ricker Oil said it will be permanently closing the former Swifty locations in Anderson, Alexandria and Pendleton.
Smith said IDEM has approved the removal of underground tanks at the sites, some of which may still contain fuel, starting Feb. 17.
Scott Imus, executive director of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, said he was unaware of Swifty’s plans to sell its Madison County facilities.
Imus said a recent death in the family who owned the Swifty gas stations may have changed the focus of the business.
The company’s founder, Don W. Myers Sr., died July 25. Myers, who was 92, owned approximately 180 combination gas stations in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky at the time of his death, according to a Hoovers.com company profile.
“When you see gas stations close, it is pretty typical for another gas station to come in its place,” Imus said. “More common than not, gas stations are replaced by gas stations and convenience stores.”
State officials say they were not informed ahead of the closures, but they are now working with the company to make sure all of the required environmental procedures are followed during the property transfer.
As for Crisler, she said the former gas station was always busy, but she had not been a regular customer because the site lacked a convenience store.
“I can’t say we are going to miss it,” she said.