Foreclosure issues for The Hot Dog Shoppe in downtown East Liverpool have been resolved. (Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)

EAST LIVERPOOL — Business is good; customers are happy and the foreclosure issued is resolved said The Hot Dog Shoppe co-owner Greg Vojnovic.

Greg and his brother Nick purchased the business founded by the Trevelline Family in the 1940s from the family in 2021, along with two other shops in Girard and Warren.

A foreclosure notice was recently filed against the business by Columbiana County for approximately $33,000 in back taxes.

Vojnovic said everyone has been talking about this and that it basically came down to a clerical/billing error resulting in the tax bill never getting to them.

“I’ve already contacted the county, and we have already made arrangements, so, it’s all done,” Vojnovic said. “It’s like this is how the government collects money, tax money, so they filed a foreclosure. We didn’t even know. So, whoever, posted it on a Facebook actually did a favor for us and let me know there was a problem.”

Vojnovic noted that their landlord receives the tax bill and is supposed to send it to them and must have forgotten. He said they got them every other year, but they didn’t get them this year.

Vojnovic did not name the landlord. He just said it was a large publicly traded REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust).

Vojnovic said the sad part of this is that the business is doing great, the customers are happy, the restaurants look great, and sales are up, and now everyone is talking about the business because people like to talk.

He went on to say that East Liverpool hasn’t had some of the best experiences lately, and the business is an important part of the community, but the employees are upset because people are calling and asking.

“We are fine, but that word (foreclosure) is a bad word, but it’s just a past due tax bill which we didn’t know about,” Vojnovic said.

He also noted that it all came down to a bookkeeping error. He discovered when he contacted the county that the county was missing a digit from their business address. He also said that it has been fixed.

Vojnovic said that a check has been sent, and the county will be ceasing the foreclosure process and business will go on. Sales are up; customers are up, and profitability is in good shape and that everything is taken care of.

kgarabrandt@mojonews.com