SCOTT: New convenience store coming to Winchester

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By JESSICA BROWN

Residents in Winchester and those just passing through will soon have a third choice in addition to the two convenience stores already located at the 4 way stop where Cherry and Main Streets intersect.

Everest Thapa purchased the property at the Southwest corner of the four way stop  10 years ago.  He began talks with Mayor Rex McIntire to open a convenience store in that location, which was formerly a grocery store. Thapa’s business partner in the convenience store venture is Gopal Basnet and the two own several other convenience stores in the area. Those locations include Meredosia, Franklin, Astoria, Petersburg and Riverton.

Thapa said the future  Phillips 66 AM PM in Winchester  will host a variety of services in addition to regular and diesel fuel,  like a beer cave, gaming, and even a Chester’s Chicken eatery. About rumors of a laundromat being included, Thapa said it was decided that would not be cost effective.

At 2,900 square feet, the building will be bigger than the Food Mart and Scotty’s gas stations that currently operate near that intersection. The AM PM will occupy the southwestern most part of the now empty lot, Thapa said, nearest to the new Petefish, Skiles and Co. bank.  The fuel pumps will be placed nearly opposite where the pumps for the Food Mart station’s are.

There has been some concern over the construction and placement of the building hampering the progress and obstructing the view of the new mural going up on the north side of the Rural Cyclery. “It will only cover about 15% of the mural,” he said, adding that the owners of that business should have no cause for concern. “We like to work with local business owners,” he said.

Construction efforts at the site of the new building include digging a large hole in the existing asphalt to make room for a fuel tank, which were placed last Friday. “It’s an 18,000 gallon tank that’s split to hold both premium and diesel fuel,” the Mayor said.

Because it would not be cost effective to fill the tank with fuel at this point, it will be filled instead with water which will have to be removed using a sump system when the time comes. “You cannot have empty fuel tanks buried because they will float up like a water bottle and resurface,” Thapa commented.

He said filling the tanks with fuel now could prove to be an unnecessary expense if the price of fuel goes down before the store is ready to sell it. Thapa said although he would like to see construction begin before the winter weather sets in, it’s more likely not to happen until spring.

Acquiring the fuel tanks was just the most recent obstacle in what has been a 10 year long endeavor to create the new store according to Mayor Rex McIntire. “It’s taken the last two years for them to get the fuel tanks,” he said.

The Mayor said it was right after the grocery store closed  that he was approached by Thapa and Basnet. “They were looking for a place to build a Subway restaurant,” he said, adding that he’d been in discussions with the business owners off and on for years. “They couldn’t find a place that suited them so they bought the property where the grocery store was and planned to build something there.”

Life circumstances prevailed throughout the next few years, including the Covid pandemic, which helped to delay plans for starting construction. At last those plans are coming to fruition, the Mayor said, adding that the projected cost of the new store will be around $2 million. “Right now I’m waiting on a set of the architectural prints,” he said, which he’ll need to approve to help the project continue.