TYNDALL - City officials are doing their part to ensure a grocery store remains in Tyndall.
At the most recent meeting of the Tyndall City Council, councilors voted 3-1 in favor of providing six months of free utilities at the store if it is purchased, according to Tyndall Finance Officer Linda Pesek. Monthly utilities at the store cost approximately $1,600.
The move comes amid a hectic search to find a new owner of the CashSmart store, set to close at the end of the month amid continuous operations "at a loss." The Tripp store is also slated to close.
The store's owner, RF Buche, made the announcement last week, which gave the stores' shoppers 30 days' notice. Buche purchased the stores in April after the former owners abruptly closed them with less than a week's notice.
Buche went public with the stores' struggles in September, desperate for a solution to insufficient spending from shoppers in Tripp, Tyndall and Scotland. He told citizens that sales needed to increase by 50 percent at each store by the end of 2017.
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"Unfortunately, we didn't come close to the sales volume we needed to remain open," Buche said in a statement last week.
The Scotland location will remain open, as there are "confidential conversations regarding the Scotland location," Buche said.
