Storiesonline.net ------- Grandfathered by Lazlo Zalezac Copyright© 2012 by Lazlo Zalezac ------- Description: For more than seventy years Smith's Garage had been a fixture in the town. Someone decided that a house would look better at that location. Codes: slow ------- Disclaimer: Although this is a work of fiction, the names of the individuals involved in the events portrayed herein, have been changed to protect the innocent, as well as to hide the identity of the guilty. However; who is innocent, and who is guilty, is a matter of opinion. In 1983, John Smith took over Smith's Garage from his father. The business, including the building that housed it, had been in the family since 1949. His father, having taken over the gas station from his father in 1969, had converted the business from pumping gas to servicing cars after the gas crisis of the 1970s. It wasn't a big operation. There was an office, two primary work bays, and a third bay that was used for storage. It provided a livelihood for three people, John, his wife, Jane, and his son, Jack. Jane schedule appointments, ordered parts, and kept the books in the office. John and Jack fixed cars in the two main bays. John's father used to wander over and give a helping hand when things were really busy, but old age had caught up to him. Despite its age, the building was still in good condition. The concrete floor hadn't cracked or buckled, the brick exterior was unblemished, and the steel supports for the building hadn't rusted. It was a solid little building. The original gravel driveway had been blacktopped and then a cement driveway poured when the blacktop broke up. The old pumps had been removed, although there was one well preserved pump from the 1950s stuffed in the corner of the storage area. The underground storage tanks for gasoline had been dug up back when the decision to stop selling gasoline had been made. The old grease pits had been replaced with hydraulic lift systems. John was proud of the business even though he would never get rich from it. He made enough to feed, clothe, shelter, and educate his children. His daughter, Jill, had gone to nursing school. She was a nurse for a nearby doctor. Although Jack worked on cars, he had earned a business degree from the community college. John planned to hand off the business to his son within a couple of years, and take a well earned retirement. For more years that he could remember, John had been active in the community. He wasn't political, but did what he could to help out. He had joined the volunteer fire department when he had turned twenty-one. He donated money for improvements to the town park and had been one of the men who had helped build the gazebo there. The little business had supported generations of little league baseball players. Photographs of forty years of baseball teams decorated one office wall. There were some customers who would come into the office, and smile upon seeing their picture hanging there. There were a few customers who had their pictures, and pictures of their children, on that wall. In a year or two, there would be three generations of kids hanging on the wall. Another wall contained pictures of the business, taken every year, documenting the gradual changes that had taken place. It had become a family tradition to take a picture of the current owner of the business on the anniversary of the garage's opening for business. There was even a picture of the opening day. Grandfather Smith, fresh from the war, was proudly posing in front of the gas pumps wearing the uniform of the gasoline company. Although there were still people living in the neighborhood who had been born there, there weren't many. The demographics of the town had slowly changed over seventy years. Older houses had been torn down, and larger, more modern, houses had been built. An entire block had been bought, and townhouses had replaced the aging structures that had stood along tree lined streets. A younger crowd, somewhat wealthier, had moved into the neighborhood. Where the town council had once had long-time residents on it, the council seats were now occupied by people who had only been in the area less than twenty years. One of the council members hadn't even lived in town for five years, yet had managed to get elected. It wasn't the same town in which John had been raised, but he continued to be a volunteer fireman and support the little league baseball team. The town may have changed, but John and his values hadn't. John and Jane returned from a well deserved two week vacation. There was a stack of mail that had been delivered while they were gone. Jane began going through the mail starting basically from the most recent, and working backwards. She didn't bother to look through the whole stack, knowing that it would only contain bills or junk mail. She intended to work through the items one at a time. She came upon one official looking letter that had been delivered only the day before. She opened it and read the contents. It was a court order that Smith's Garage vacate the premises, and the building be torn down to make room for a house that would better fit into the neighborhood. She read it a second time, thinking she must have misunderstood something. She dug through the mail and found a notice that the town council had passed a new zoning regulation while they had been on vacation. According to the zoning regulation, businesses were now explicitly barred from operating in the neighborhood in which the garage was located. There was another notice that a hearing to get a court order to close the business, which had been scheduled on the previous Monday. Feeling sick to her stomach, Jane shouted, "John! Come in here!" John, who had been getting ready to open the garage doors, went into the office to find out why his wife was so excited. He entered the office area to find his wife frantically waving a couple of letters at him. For a moment, he wondered if they had won the Magazine Clearing House Sweepstakes. His wife shouted, "They're closing us down." "Who is closing us down?" John asked. "The town." "What are you talking about?" John asked. Jane said, "Read this." John read the letters. He stared at them for nearly five minutes trying to organize his thoughts. This could destroy all of their plans for the future. There was no way they could afford to move the little business into a new location. They owned this building and that helped keep the operating costs down. Having to rent a new place somewhere else would kill their profitability. It wasn't even clear that their customer base would follow them to a new location. Moving was not a viable option. The odds were good that they would have to close the business. They wouldn't have a retirement income from it since Jack wouldn't be able to take the business over. For that matter, Jack would be unemployed. Then it dawned on him that they would all be unemployed. John wondered if he'd even be able to collect unemployment. He'd heard stories of other small businessmen who had lost their businesses not being able to collect unemployment despite having contributed to the state mandated unemployment insurance. Finally, John decided that there was no way the town could close down a business that had been there for over seventy years. He said, "They can't do this." Jane had sat at her desk watching John with a worried expression on her face. Despite the confidence in his voice, she asked, "Are you sure?" "We've been located here for over seventy years. I'm sure that there's some sort of Grandfather Clause that will prevent them from shutting us down," John said. Looking worried, Jane said, "I don't know about that." "I mean, they just can't decide that they don't want us here." "Is this some sort of eminent domain thing?" "No. They aren't taking our property, they are telling us what we can and can't do on it," John answered. "There's a court order requiring us to demolish the building within a year." "We weren't even here to be notified that there was a court hearing," Jane said. "I'm pretty sure that they can't hold court proceedings without us having been informed ahead of time." "They did it," John said in disgust. Starting to feel paranoid, Jane said, "It's like they waited for us to be out of town before doing this." "I know," John said wondering if they had been specifically targeted. A quick conversation with a lawyer began a legal process that after three months managed to get the court order over-turned as a result of failing to follow due process. The letter sent had not been registered, and there was no proof that the Smiths had been informed about the hearing. After a separate visit to the court, the zoning change was over-turned as well. The quick insertion of the change into the agenda had meant that those affected by the change had not been given proper notice in order to voice their objections. As far as John was concerned, he had wasted three thousand dollars, although he did get to stay in business over the near-term. Their paranoia about having been specifically targeted, turned out to be accurate. A new neighbor, one who had moved into a house across the street and two houses down less than six months earlier, was always complaining that the garage was an eyesore and ruined the property values of the whole area. It didn't matter that the garage was there when he bought the house. When he had noticed the on vacation sign the Smiths had hung on the front door of the business, he had contacted a member of the town council who he knew agreed with him. The zoning change had been added to the agenda for the council meeting. It had passed with very little discussion, since only two businesses were affected – Smith's Garage and a little deli located in a small two bedroom house that had been converted into a business. Everyone agreed that having a bunch of cars parked around the garage didn't look very nice and that the neon sign on the deli didn't belong in a bedroom community. The businesses had to go for the betterment of the town. Of course, having the zoning change overruled only angered the members of the city council. Taking a bit more time, they managed to pass an even more restrictive zoning regulation. The council arbitrarily dismissed the statement that the business had been located there for seventy years as irrelevant. They weren't going to make an exception for one business. Before the hearings took place, John and Jane tried to use the press to further their cause. There was a large article detailing the history of the garage, talking about how it had begun as a gas station, the energy crisis of the 1970s, and how they had changed over to a car repair garage. The article had highlighted their community service. It had no effect. No one showed up at the hearing to testify on their behalf. The fight against the town council had cost another $4000. It was money that was wasted although it did manage to buy another couple months for the business. The city council went to court to get an injunction against the business. They wanted the business closed and the building removed because it was an eyesore. The afternoon in court seemed to drag on forever. It was a week later before there was a judgment that the business had to be closed and the building demolished. The judge, stating it as an act of charity and appreciation for past community service, gave them a year to close the garage. John left the courthouse feeling depressed. He had spent $11,000 in lawyer fees to save his business and had failed. All of the legal wrangling, and searching for a place to move the business had forced him to neglect parts of the business. With only him and Jack working at the garage, they had to turn away a few customers when it was obvious that they would be shorthanded. A flurry of unexpected inspections by various government agencies had also cost him another couple of thousand dollars in fines. Renting a space for a garage was not a simple matter. A lot of property owners didn't want a car repair garage renting space because of the possibility of toxic spills. Cars dripped oil, parts were cleaned with nasty chemicals, and it was just a dirty business. It was no wonder that the old fashioned service station that also fixed cars had become a thing of the past. Car repair places, even those associated with car dealerships, were huge facilities now with lots of mechanics who repaired cars in nearly an assembly line manner. John and Jane would never be able to raise the money required to purchase such a facility. They weren't even able to sell the garage as a business. Two days earlier it had been valued at over a million dollars based on the volume of business that went through it and today it was only worth the value of the property it sat upon. All of the assets had turned to dust. John and Jane went home leaving Jack in charge of the shop. They had to decide what they were going to do now that things seemed hopeless. Jane asked, "Can we appeal?" "It's not worth it. We'll spend a ton of money and still lose the garage," John said. Jane asked, "So what do we do now?" John answered, "I guess we decide when we are going to shut the doors. We'll have to sell off everything. There's a lot of equipment and tools there that might bring in ten or twenty thousand dollars, if we're lucky. Who is going to buy a twenty year old hydraulic lift when garages are closing all over the place? Nobody, that's who." Jane said, "We can sell off some of the stuff that has collected in that storage bay. Some of that junk is now considered antique and is collectable." "That might get us another thousand or two. All we're left with is the value of the property," John said. "That should be a lot of money." John shook his head. "I was talking with the lawyer. Because it was a car repair place, they are liable to classify it as a Superfund site. We'll have to clean up the property before a house can be built on it. That could cost tens of thousands of dollars." Jane said, "Maybe we can build a house on it after the property is cleaned up and make a little extra money that way." "I hate to be so negative, but the housing market sucks," John said. "I know," Jane said. "We're going to get clobbered on taxes when we distribute whatever money we manage to salvage out of the business among the stockholders," John said. "This is going to kill your father's retirement," Jane said. "We're going to have problems claiming unemployment." Jane was shocked. She asked, "Why? We've paid unemployment insurance." "Yes, but we are the owners of the corporation since our family owns all of the stock. We have to have a federal audit to assure that the business is actually closed before we can claim unemployment. The lawyer said that process is a nightmare," John said. He faltered for a moment and then said, "Well, you and Jack might be able to claim unemployment if I lay you off before closing the doors of the company. I'll have to look into that." "How much is it going to cost us to close the garage?" Jane asked. "Thousands of dollars. We can't claim bankruptcy since we don't actually have any creditors to stiff with our bills," John said. Jane said, "We've got to be able to do something to save the business." John shook his head. "I don't know. I'm just a fucking auto mechanic who likes fixing cars. I'm not a lawyer." "Talk to our lawyer." "Every time I call him, it ends up costing me a hundred dollars. I'm going broke and he's getting rich," John said. "What are we going to tell your father?" Jane asked. John's grandfather had set up the business as a corporation. When he had retired, he had started slowly transferring shares to John and his father. When John's grandfather had died, most of his shares had already been transferred to his son. There had been almost no taxes on the estate. John had inherited his grandfather's house, which was right next door to the garage. John's father continued to own shares in the garage. His retirement was to cash in a couple of shares every few months by selling them to corporation, which John and Jack would buy out of their share of the dividends paid at the end of the year. A small dividend check made a nice Christmas present for John's father. This had kept the business in the family and would have provided John's father with a reasonable retirement well into his eighties. It had been John's intention to have a similar retirement. Without continued income from repairing cars those shares were going to be worthless. "I don't know," John answered. "He'll get some money when we finally shut the doors, but it is going to be a fraction of what he was counting on." "What are you going to do?" Jane asked. "I don't know," John answered. The next six months passed with John and Jake continueing to fix cars. At the end of the sixth month, Smith's Garage stopped repairing cars. Jake and Jane were laid off and started collecting unemployment insurance. John started selling off tools, equipment, and the stuff stored in the third bay. The money wasn't great, but he wasn't losing his shirt on the sales, either. John contracted with a demolition company to tear down the building. It cost a lot more than he had anticipated, but the building was gone before the deadline. The lawyer had been correct that the property had to be cleared environmentally. That cost another ten thousand dollars, but the Smiths had always been careful since they worked there and lived right next door. By the time the deadline had come and passed, John figured that his legal problems were over. He hadn't actually closed the business since the property was still owned by the corporation. The IRS showed up and John spent more money going through an audit. The IRS found nothing, but John was still out the money spent defending the corporation. Then he got hit with a notice that the taxes were due on the property. Of course, the property tax evaluation included the fact that there was a business building on the property. He documented that it was now a bare lot and submitted the documentation to the appeals board to get the property taxes changed. They came back with a ruling that the building had actually devalued the property so now the property was worth more. The taxes remained the same. John would have argued, but the taxes on the empty lot were higher than the taxes on his lot with a house. He figured that if he lost, they'd raise the property taxes on the house since its property value must have gone up because the eyesore building next door was gone. He didn't want to take the chance. In time, things calmed down. One of John's friends, a neighbor, was having car problems. He went over and looked at her car. The connector to the battery had corroded. He poured a little bit of a soft drink on it, tightened the connection, and started the car. He was returning home when one of the town councilmen stopped him and accused him of practicing his car repair business out of his house. John calmly explained that he only helped a neighbor, and hadn't taken any money for it. He was warned to be careful because he could fined, and perhaps jailed, if it was discovered that he was operating a business out of his house. Disgusted, John returned home, convinced that he had to move away. It was a few months before John's house sold, when a situation occurred of a rather ironic nature. The man, who had instigated the entire process to shut down the garage, had a kitchen fire. As a volunteer fireman, John was on call. On learning the address of the fire, John said that he wasn't going to respond to the call, because he had problem with the man, and didn't want to risk a lawsuit. He wasn't the only volunteer fireman to make that choice. The Fire Chief had to call the fire department from the next town, to get sufficient men to take care of the fire. By then, the house was pretty well in flames. John and Jane finally sold their house and moved. He took a position in an auto parts store, making a lot less than he had earned in the garage. Edited By TeNderLoin ------- The End ------- Posted: 2012-01-16 ------- http://storiesonline.net/ -------