FERNANDINA BEACH - Mullis Exxon Service Station, which has been a downtown landmark for 38 years, will stop selling gas next month, citing new regulations and old pumps as the reasons.

However, the popular T-Rays Burger Station restaurant inside the gas station at Eighth and Beech streets will continue on.

T-Ray Mullis, son of station owner Ray Mullis, said crews will begin taking out gas tanks at the station Aug. 4.

"The new Environmental Protection Agency regulations are coming out that fiberglass tanks aren't good enough anymore," he said. "Now they have to be double fiberglass, a tank within a tank."

Mullis estimated it would cost $250,000 to replace the tanks.

But that isn't the only problem for the decades-old gas station.

To stay in business, Mullis said the station also would have to install new gas pumps. The current pumps don't read past $3.99 a gallon.

Mullis said it would cost $10,000 each to replace the six pumps.

"The cost is just way too much," he said. "The profit for gas is basically none at $4 a gallon. My grandchildren would never be able to pay for those tanks if I put them in."

Mullis said he hasn't heard many people saying they're upset about the gas station shutting down because people are buying gas wherever they can get it the cheapest.

"But some of our older customers are upset," he said. "Some of them have been pumping gas here for 40 years."

His wife, Laura Mullis, said it's a shame they have to shut down the gas station.

But she's trying to be optimistic.

"I want it to be something positive for him," she said about her father-in-law. "Now he can focus on the restaurant. T-Rays is still going to be here. We just won't be selling gas." Good 'til the last drop!

All gas at Mullis Exxon Service Station will be on sale for $3.79 a gallon from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. today. The station is closed on Sunday, but will resume selling gas at that price from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday or until tanks are empty.

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