Jerry Ski, of Ski’s Teases and Collectibles, cleared out his merchandise this weekend after disputes with the landlord.
After years of flooding and sewage problems, Ski’s Teases and Collectibles, 55 N. Court St., closed its doors for good this weekend.
Jerry Ski, who opened the T-shirt and gift shop about 13 years ago, was given an eviction notice last month due to conflicts with the landlord and Casa Nueva, 6 W. State St., which shares a building with Ski.
“We’ve always had flooding problems one way or another, but the sewage one became more apparent as time went by,” Ski said.
Ski said there have been three instances when sewage water has gotten backed up in the building’s plumbing system and flooded into the backroom of his basement store.
During moms weekend this year, when sewage began spilling into his back room again, he decided to call a plumber to “snake out” the pipes.
“I couldn’t tolerate anymore,” he said. “It covered the floor with raw sewage and old toilet paper. The smell was unbearable. There was onion peels and three inch turds.”
Ski said he asked employees at Casa to stop flushing so that the plumber could work on the pipes, but that they ignored his requests.
“I did what was only normal, which was to turn off their flushing,” he said.
He added he only shut off two of the water valves, which allowed Casa employees to keep some of their running water, as well as water in their emergency sprinkler system.
He said the Casa employees argued that they needed to keep all of their valves running due to the large crowds expected that weekend.
“I had to take action because, hey I grew up in the Navy, and if there’s a hole in the boat you save the boat first,” Ski said.
That same weekend, Mike L’Heureux, owner of L’Heureux Properties, handed Ski an eviction notice requiring him to clear the building in 30 days.
Ski said other structural issues in his building included a toilet that overflowed any time it was flushed and a light fixture that had fallen out of the ceiling.
“I maintained what I could for him,” Ski said. “Yeah, my store got crowded….The problems were just bigger than we could deal with.”
L’Heureux would not give a comment to the Post.
Ski said he incurred between $3,000 and $4,000 worth of damage from that weekend’s flooding, in addition to the business he lost while attending to the problem.
Moms weekend, he said, was always as much of a boon for his business as it was for Casa.
“I had a good time every time moms came down,” he said.
Ski said he was finishing up the last of his packing this past weekend.
He said he had no plans to open up shop somewhere else in town. He said he would offer some of his merchandise to the Athens County Historical Society and Museum, 65 N. Court St. His collections include historical artifacts from old Athens shops and bars.
“I sell historical things of Athens,” he said. “You can buy a piece of Athens history.”
Last year, Ski applied for a liquor license from the state, according to a previous Post article.
But he said he turned the license down due to what he perceived to be pressures from the city’s administration against alcohol-serving establishments.
“I had great plans for a liquor license,” he said, adding that he would have wanted to turn the shop into a bar.
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