How the DEP ruined our business

The following is a story about how a government agency can ruin your business, alter your life plan and leave you no recourse at all. It will give us satisfaction to have our story told as well as serve as a warning to other small business owners who may find themselves in similar circumstances at some point.

My husband retired in 1995 and we moved to Maine. I was born in Greenville and my husband grew up in Bucksport so we knew this is where we wanted to be in our golden years. Our goal was to work at a business for five years and then totally retire while we were young, healthy and fortunate enough to do so.

We purchased a variety store and although it was not all we were led to believe it was, we continued forward. In June 2002 a young woman from the Department of Environmental Protection came to our business to inspect our gasoline distribution system.

To make a long story short, she felt something was not up to par and my husband told her all of our documentation regarding installation of the system (the former owners had a new above-ground system installed in 1988) was at our home but he would have it at the store the following day. We heard nothing from this woman again until one year later when we received a certified letter stating we were in violation in a number of areas and to stop pumping gasoline effective September. We did stop and began contacting various people to see what we could do about this.

In May 2004, nine months later, the DEP, along with a gasoline inspection outfit from New York, spent the day at our store going over our system with a fine-tooth comb – and lo and behold, there was nothing wrong – we may resume pumping gasoline. We lost more than $10,000 worth of business per month for every month we were not allowed to pump gas.

Our business was and is on the verge of being destroyed.

My husband contacted Sen. Paul Davis, who in just a few days had an appointment for himself and my husband to meet with one of the top people of the DEP.

Here I might add that the day before this scheduled meeting, we were again visited by a DEP employee (a different one). This one had created a list of things that should have been in place long before we owned the store and said we needed to comply prior to selling gasoline again.

Sounds to me like a “cover your butt” visit.

At the scheduled meeting in Augusta the following day, the only thing accomplished was an opportunity for my husband to get several things off his chest and vent. He was informed there is nothing the DEP can do to help us.

“They could have handled it differently,” was the quote of the day. There is no monetary reimbursement for this type of “error.” No one is responsible to reimburse us for the more than $100,000 that we lost.

Sen. Davis also set up a meeting with someone in the governor’s office. Again my husband told our story and again he was informed there was nothing anyone could do.

Too bad. So sorry. Tough luck.

Do you think if we contacted a Democratic senator rather than a no- nonsense Republican senator like Davis that the outcome of this meeting would have been different?

During this time, we hired an attorney to help us and personally paid more than $2,000 to the attorney because the store is broke. Again we were informed there is nothing we can do to recoup what we have lost.

Just an example of the things the store lost in addition to $10,000-plus per month: Selection Video pulled out because the rentals decreased so much; we lost two snack venders; we had to forfeit our wine license because we could not afford the yearly cost; the seed company would not renew because of the decrease in sales; our inventory in general has decreased approximately $35,000 because we cannot afford to restock.

This does not even cover the clientele we have lost because there are other places they can go for gas, soda, bread, one-stop shopping, like we used to be. It appears the only thing they have not ruined is our redemption center.

So basically, our five-year plan is now in year 11 and we aren’t getting any younger or closer to that retirement package we worked so hard for.

Yes, our store is for sale. Yes, we will negotiate with anyone who is interested. It would make a great Dunkin’ Donuts.

We are sorry we opened our business in the state that “welcomes small businesses with open arms and gives them every opportunity to thrive.”

Our sincere thanks to Sen. Davis for his efforts on our behalf, and to our regular customers who won’t buy a lottery ticket any place else.

Oh, and, a special thanks to the DEP for all they have done.

Marlene Desmond is owner of Desmond’s Variety Inc. in Guilford, which is co-owned by her husband Edward.