False closing gossip by township officials is hurting my business, Sizzle-N-Chill Drive-In owner says – PennLive
The restaurant business is never an easy game, but the owner of the Sizzle-N-Chill Drive-In is claiming gossip by West Hanover Township officials has cost his eatery at least $25,000 in the last five months.
Nick Atanasoff insists he can track that loss to a post township Tax Collector Thomas Stewart placed on West Hanover’s Neighborhood & Community Facebook page on Sept. 18.
“Sizzle and Chill is no more,” the post said.
His restaurant along Route 22 is still very much open, Atanasoff said, but Stewart’s post has scared many of his customers away.
The impact has been so great that Atanasoff filed a civil complaint with District Judge Joseph Lindsey, seeking financial compensation from Stewart and township Zoning Officer Janet Hardman, who he claims provided Stewart with the inaccurate information that ended up online.
A hearing on the case didn’t get very far Friday morning, although Atanasoff and his father, Ted, did get to lay out the bones of their argument.
The two didn’t have an attorney, however, and Lindsey said he was going to reschedule the hearing and he told them to come back with a lawyer. The judge said he wanted to have a “real” court hearing, not a “circus.”
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Ted Atanasoff, the restaurant manager, did give some testimony before Lindsey pulled the plug. He said he believes Hardman passed the faulty information to Stewart after a prospective buyer called her to ask about the zoning of the Sizzle-N-Chill.
He testified that his son was having his best year at the restaurant financially before that Facebook post appeared. “We have consistently lost $1,600 a week on average…to the tune of a total of $25,000,” he said.
The inquiry Hardman received should have remained confidential, Ted Antanasoff contended.
Evidence the Atanasoffs didn’t yet get the chance to present in their case includes a stream of conversations on the disputed Facebook post. When someone asked Stewart on that stream what was going to happen with the Sizzle-N-Chill property, he replied, “not sure was told in the Township when I came to the office today.”
Nick Atanasoff said the impact of the Facebook post was immediate. The day it appeared he had 20 to 30 inquiries from customers asking why he was shutting down, he said. He said he is still getting asked that question several times a day.
After the derailed hearing, Kurt E. Williams, the lawyer representing Hardman and Stewart, said he will “vigorously defend” his clients against the Atanasoffs’ allegations.
The Atanasoffs said they’ll be back for Round 2 with a lawyer. “I realize we’re up against city hall. It’s David and Goliath,” Ted Atanasoff said.
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