Well it happened. We are closed. And it wasn't because
of the lack of support from customers and close friends.
It was because of meddling and angry people who woke up one day and
decided to mess with someone else's life and they did so in a most profound way.
Opening and running any small business is costly. I saved my money
for two years to open the store. And I was doing okay. I wasn't getting rich, as anyone who knows me can attest to. But I
was running a very honest business and doing what was right for the animals. After nearly two years of being open I had a
dedicated clientel and was paying the monthly bills with barely anything left in the bank.
The trouble started when our neighbor, a flower shop hired a medling
woman. The owner of the shop was a good customer, she had purchased some fish and supplies. She hired a woman who turned out
to be the end of my store. She made a complaint about animal abuse at the store. I was met at the front door by a member of
Leesburg code enforcement upon opening. He said he was responding to a complaint of animal abuse. He said the person told
him there were animals underfed and being abused. I let him in, he toured my store, I showed him how we breed our own animals,
everyone is fed and watered and kept healthy. I had one small agama lizard that was not doing well and showed him the medications
I was using, prescribed by a veterinarian, and I asked him that if I spent 60 plus dollars on a 5 dollar lizard I must be
an animal abuser right?. He chuckled. And he admitted that the complaint was unfounded. BUT, he decided to cite the owner
of the building for me not having the appropriate ventilation system in the building.
He asked me where my vent system was. I told him that we had an in
wall airconditioner and that the building is nearly a hundred years old and there is no central vent system in it. He responded
that he needed to check the "city code" to see what that was. I told him fine, I wanted to comply. I gave him my card and
he said he would be in touch.
Well he never got in touch with me. My landlord, the owner of my building,
called me in a panic. He had recieved a letter, from the city, threatening him with a 250.00 dollar a day fine if he did not
install a ventilation system. The letter stated that he had 10 days to correct the problem from the date of the letter, which,
was dated 5 days prior to him recieveing it. Which of course left just 5 DAYS to install a vent system into the building,
which is nearly 100 years old. And to boot, the vent system had to blow out of the roof, not the front, side, or back walls.
It is a two story building that my pet store used the bottom floor of.
Several problems here. One, and my main question was, why can they,
after two years, decide this is a problem. I was licensed by the city, and my license was renewed more than once, and
no one inspected. The fire dept inspects, the wild life people inspect, I paid all of my fees and licenses and no one had
a problem except this man.
The second problem is the time frame. How can anyone, even the best
intentioned person, complete these types of modifications to a building in 10 days, or 5 days as it were.
I had to immediately remove the animals from the store. It was heartbreaking.
I had one weekend to do this. I had no choice but to close.
The city of leesburg was not interested in negotiating. And my landlord,
who occupied the space above me runs a commercial electric contracting business. He cannot afford to have liens placed on
his building or he cannot afford to be in litigation with the city, his livelihood depends on him bidding for commercial contracts,
and if a contract holder sees these glitches then he will not hire him.
The city of leesburg saw this. And they took advantage of it.
The woman in the flower shop who started this has no remorse. In her
own words, "You shouldn't have those nasty animals around here." This tells you why she did this. She could not stand having
to be next door to snakes, rats and such. Even though she did not own the flower shop, she merely worked there.
The truth is, it was only two people. One, a meddling angry woman,
the other, one employee of the city. Just him. He had the power, he also had the choice to work with us. He came into my store,
not even aware of what the code was, said he would be in touch with me.
He left, he found the code, he decided, quite cleverly, not to speak
directly to me. He decided to go to the building owner and throw the proverbial book at him. I lost.
The legal advice I got was, it is in the code, and the court does not
recognize power tripping losers who decide to use the code to wield their power, in other words, the law is the law.
I am in debt, alot of it. I lost my business. I lost my clients. My
clients lost a good store. And the flower shop still has the employee and the city still has this power freak.
Justice.
And as far as moving, it costs thousands of dollars to move into a
retail space. And in this part of the state leases run 5 years. I was fortunate to have a terrific renter, who didn't hold
me to a lease, who charged me a generous rent rate, who was always available if I needed them. My life was good.
Justice.
