LIVERMORE FALLS — Puffin Stop, a gas station and convenience store that has been in town for decades, closed its doors Tuesday for good. The property will be auctioned off on July 15 to the highest bidder, store managers said.

Besides local residents losing the business and ability to have house-charges with the company, hunters will have to find a new weigh station. The local hunting club uses the station as do other hunters.

Alliance Energy LLC that owns the Main Street property will not renew the lease, Assistant Manager Jenn Lemieux said Tuesday.

Alliance Energy LLC is one of the largest petroleum marketing distributors in New England, according to its website, and has been providing quality products and services to its customers since 1985. The company was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

“We literally found out about it last week,” she said. “The company is not willing to work with us. It’s sad.”

Their boss, Zack Sclar fought to keep the store open, Manager Cindy Smith said.

The convenience store and gas station was initially known as Eddie’s years ago before it became Puffin Stop. The Sclars have owned the business for about five years.

They all found out together that the place was closing after a co-worker called to tell them that auction signs had gone up at the property, Lemieux said.

It’s an absolute sale the property will go for the highest price bid when the auction is held on site Thursday, July 15.

“It’s sad,” Lemieux said. “Losing our jobs is tough but losing our coworkers is worse.”

The Sclars including Zack’s father, Stanley, who own Food City, will try to find the eight affected employees jobs in the grocery store business, she said.

“Dozens of people have stopped to give us a hug and wish us well in the future,” Lemieux said.

The store has a lot of history, Smith said.

“We have customers that have been coming here 25, 30 years,” she said. “We’ve had a wonderful bunch of customers and I want our customers to know that we’ll never, ever forget them. They became part of our family.”

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