Florence business tells of hardships since town’s eviction
by Mark Cowling | Florence Reminder & Blade Tribune
The owner of the local gun store for the last several years described the hardships on his business since Florence officials evicted him from a historic N. Main Street store in mid-March.
It was the second day of testimony in the case of downtown landlord Gem Cox before the town’s Board of Appeals. Cox is arguing the town had no cause to close his building and cut off the power.
Conquest Arms owner Travis Thompson told the board they weren’t given 72 hours to vacate, or even 15 minutes as some have said. “On (March) 16th we closed our store at 5:05 p.m., and a sign was placed on the door saying we could not go back in,” Thompson told the appeals board on June 21. The store’s owners were then faced with the task of moving their federal firearms license to a new address, which was not a simple process. They could only do business from the address on file.
