From flower deliveries to squad-car patrols, high gas prices are seeping into the Northwest Indiana economy.

Coming off of a hectic week of Mother's Day sales, Crown Point florist Rosemary De St. Jean said she may soon be faced with hiking her $6 delivery charge.

Consumer spending on gasoline is contributing to debt problems for some, said Pamela Stalling, executive director of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Northwest Indiana in Gary.

And filling up the town's fleet of police cars now costs about $6,000 a month, compared to $4,500 a month last year, Highland Clerk-Treasurer Michael Griffin said.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline hit a record $3.22 a gallon this week, and was up $1.05 since the beginning of February, according to the Energy Department.

"It's obviously affecting every service we deliver," Griffin said.

It costs more to mow the lawns at city parks, Griffin said. "but the most obvious is public safety - the police patrols."

Construction costs are up because plastic pipe, asphalt and other products are petroleum based, and that doesn't count the cost of getting to and from job sites, said Bill Hasse, of Hasse Construction Co. in Calumet City.

"Most of the construction industry is a mobile work force," Hasse said. Between personal travel expenses, the cost of getting product to work sites, the cost of on-road vehicle fuel, "every aspect of our business is affected."

Calculating the fluctuating cost of fuel into a contract can be tough, especially on contracts bid months or even years ahead of construction, Hasse said.

And without some form of reimbursement when fuel prices unexpectedly rise, "contractors' profit margins shrink," Hasse said.

For the government sector, relief from high fuel prices might mean rethinking how services are provided, Griffin said.

"Generally, we need to be smarter about how we deliver services," Griffin said.