Nome Residents Roll Along With Higher Fuel Prices The measure of how challenging it can be to live in Nome, Alaska, starts with a dollar sign. There are plentiful, painful reminders all over this Being Sea coastal community. At the grocery store, it's $39.25 for a 12-roll package of paper towels. Toilet paper costs $37.85 for a 36-roll package. Want a 2-liter of Diet Pepsi? It's on sale this week for $4.49. At a restaurant, breakfast for one will run about $16. And the price for a gallon of gas is well above the national average, at $5.96 a gallon. If there's any good news for the 3,500 residents of Nome, it's that gas is cheap compared to what it could have been. One of the two main fuel suppliers for Nome didn't have the last barge arrive before the Bering Sea froze for the winter. Bonanza Fuel considered flying in fuel from Anchorage, but the cost would have made gas prices jump to $9 or $10 a gallon. Instead, Bonanza arranged for a Russian tanker to make a 5,000-mile journey, and with the help of a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker, it made the first-ever winter delivery by sea to Nome when it brought in 1.3 million gallons in early January. The painstaking delivery played out as a worldwide media drama. When the Coast Guard vessel Healy and the Russian tanker Renda sailed off, everyone waited to see where Bonanza would set the price of their fuel, fearful that Bonanza's parent company, Sitnasuak Native Corp., would pass on the costs. Sitnasauk CEO Jason Evans wouldn't disclose how much the international effort cost (they filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against the company that didn't deliver before the freeze, and have been countersued), but said market pressures dictated $5.96 a gallon, two cents below its competitor. "It could have been a lot worse," Mayor Denise Michels said from her City Hall office, located on the site where Wyatt Earp - he of Gunfight-at-the-OK-Corral fame - owned a bar during Nome's heady gold rush days. For the hardy residents of Nome, high prices are just a way of life. "There are times we wonder how we can live here, too," joked Leo Rasmussen, 70, a former mayor and business owner. Nome, located about 535 miles northwest of Anchorage, is whipped by wind from the Bering Sea in winter. Front Street, the town's main drag, is right on the coast and serves as the backdrop for the finish line of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race each year in March. Just outside town limits, the winter landscape is rolling hills of deep snow along the frozen, treeless tundra. It's not uncommon to see small airplanes using the frozen Bering Sea as a runway, or to see people riding ATVs or cross-country skiing on the ice near mushers finishing the Iditarod. Once the sea melts, floating dredges can be seen along the coast, with crew members diving with suction hoses, hoping to pull up gold from the sediment. A new TV reality show, "Bering Sea Gold," prompted state officials to send information to people inquiring about dredging. It starts with the salutation, "Dear Gold Seeker," and asks them if they "are prepared to find very little gold compared to what you'll spend to find it?" Nome - like most Alaska communities - is not on the state's road system and goods have to be shipped or flown in, increasing the prices. Greg Hetu, 52, is a cook at the hospital. "It's really difficult, actually," he said of dealing with the high prices in Nome. He said dishwashers make $16 an hour, but that's barely a livable wage in Nome.