BRIDGEPORT -- After 18 years at Hard's Corner, Ken Petrino locked the doors for good on Aug. 31 at the last directly owned Mobil gasoline station in Stratford.
His landlord, Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil company, wouldn't renew the lease.
Petrino said he made an offer to buy the station, but he and the company couldn't come to terms, so now the building at the corner of Main Street and Stratford Avenue is boarded up, which has angered some people in the neighborhood.
"It doesn't look good for us," said John Baggeas, owner of the Duchess Diner. "It looks like we're closing."
Baggeas said he's concerned that, in a tough economic climate, people see a boarded-up building and think the neighborhood is going downhill. Still, he had a lot of business for lunch Wednesday and couldn't spend a lot of time talking about his concerns before orders from the kitchen called him away. Another worker called the situation sad.
Beth Snyder, an Exxon spokeswoman, said the strategy is to not close the stations, but to sell them to distributors who will continue to operate them as Mobil or Exxon stations.
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