The towing section of the business, which includes a storage and impound lot on Franklin Street, remains open, he said.
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Triumph Energy Corporation gave notice Jan. 10 to Day’s Towing & Auto Repair, the property’s lessee, after the business was two months late on paying its rent, according to Bill Burkart, the company’s vice president.
The business was told to vacate the premises by Feb. 1.
Bob Day, who started Day’s Towing & Auto Repair in 1963, died three years ago after being diagnosed with cancer, he said.
“He worked there up until the day he died,” Leece said.
Bob Day’s son, Mike, assumed ownership of the business about 16 years ago, Leece said.
With Mike Day in the hospital to be treated for an undisclosed illness, any possibility of reopening the business will hinge on his recovery, he said.
The Day family, Leece said, “always had a real big heart.”
“(They) always had a lot of regular customers and it’s a shame” that the business closed, Leece said. “The place had been around so long and everybody in Hamilton knows about it. It’s tearing the family apart the fact that it’s closed up after Bob had it open so long.”
Leece said he receives approximately 30 phone calls a day from customers or former customers asking about Mike Day and the business.
“It’s really rough on everybody,” he said. “We had a whole lot of regular customers that are older that … they would pull in and we would pump their gas for them, check their oil, check their tires. You ain’t gonna find no place like that anymore.”
Closing of the business means the loss of about 10 to 12 jobs, including mechanics and tow-truck drivers, Leece said.
The rent-related closing isn’t the shop’s first financial issue.
In 2010, Mike Day pleaded guilty to charges for failure to remit sales taxes and also pleaded guilty on behalf of his business to a charge of grand theft. As part of a plea deal, the felony counts were reduced to misdemeanors.
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