Minden Wendy's closes

Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers closed Friday due to financial reasons after 13 years of making burgers for the towns of Minden and Gardnerville.

Owner Ron Tolotti of Wenco Inc. in Reno said he was sorry to have had to shut down the Minden fast-food restaurant.

"We closed it down Friday. It's been underperforming our financial expectations for a while," said Tolotti in a telephone interview Monday.

"The last 13 years have been pretty good. I wish we could have kept it up."

Tolotti said the shortage of revenue brought in at the Ironwood Center Wendy's is due to the lack of development in the shopping center.

"We needed an anchor in that shopping center," said Tolotti. "When they decided to put in apartments, that didn't help us."

Wendy's is currently up for sale and Tolotti said he has no plans at this time to relocate the franchise to another area in Douglas County.

"We're sorry to have left it," said Tolotti, who added that the restaurant has given to local schools for a long time.

"We've been a part of Gardnerville for many years," he said. "It's a sad thing."