Service stations in Greater Cincinnati pumped up prices again Friday, giving the area the highest fuel costs among the largest cities in Ohio and Kentucky just in time for Labor Day travel.

        The average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded in Southwest Ohio leaped to $1.74 Friday from $1.66 the day before, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. That's 22 cents above the national average of $1.52, the report said.

        In Northern Kentucky, the price averaged $1.65 Friday.

        Last year at this time, regular unleaded averaged $1.51 nationally, $1.46 in Southwest Ohio and $1.47 in Northern Kentucky.

        “I'm used to it,” said Tom Ruebusch of AAAA International Driving School in Finneytown. Mr. Ruebusch filled his tank at the BP station at Vine Street and Compton Road, Hartwell, where prices ranged from $1.80 for regular to $2 for premium.

        “I try to buy gas Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, to avoid higher prices around the weekend, but sometimes that's not possible.”

        The Rev. Paul McMillan of Second Baptist Church in Newport was resigned to paying the going rate to fill his church van's tank. He was at the Shell station at Galbraith and Winton roads in Finneytown because it's convenient.

        “On both sides of the river, (the price) is about the same,” said Mr. McMillan, who lives in College Hill and drives church members to services in Kentucky each Sunday. “... I have to have gas, so I pay whatever it costs.”

        The higher costs locally are part of a Midwest trend that experts attribute to a fire last month that has temporarily shut down a refinery in Lemont, Ill.

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