JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Murray Hill pool hall says it will stop serving food Sunday because of an issue with a fence.
Perfect Rack Billiards told News4Jax that Sleiman Enterprises, the former owner of The Jacksonville Landing, put up a fence at the end of the property line that prevents the waste from being collected from the dumpster.
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Perfect Rack said it has tried to resolve the issue, but it is now being forced to close its kitchen because it said it has nowhere else to put its waste.
"We're basically blocked from any kind of waste removal," said Cory Goff, the owner's son. "We're kind of out of luck. We can't operate as a restaurant anymore."
Goff, who works at the pool hall, says a temporary fence went up about a month ago.
"We’ve tried to work with them, the owners of buildings, to try to come up with a resolution and got nowhere, and last Thursday, Oct. 30th, the permanent fence went up," Goff said. "People are going to lose their jobs over it, unfortunately. Our sales right now are mostly food sales, so when that goes away, we'll be fighting to keep our doors open."
Perfect Rack has been in business since 2008 and said there has never been an issue until now.
"All we have done is used their backyard to get to our backyard. It was never a problem since we opened the place," Goff said. "When we acquired the building that was our procedure was just coming through the backyard and no one batted an eye for, you know, 12 years."
News4Jax asked Sleiman Enterprises about the issue and it released a statement:
"Sleiman Enterprises as adjacent property owner has exercised its rights to quiet enjoyment for our tenants located here.
"The circumstance of an adjacent property relying on or passing through a neighbor's parcel for access is not authorized and had created issues with respect to parking, use and control for activities off our site (legal or otherwise). There is no legal requirement or reliance for our parcel to serve as entryway to neighboring parcels. Our intention is to simply preserve access to our property, support our tenants’ needs and ensure our property is clean, safe and secure for tenants and their guests.
"What we did was within our rights as property owners. Further, a fence had already been erected by the neighboring property owner, we merely added our own to uphold the principles of private property ownership."