New owners take over at Four Corners

Tim’s 4 Corners Union 76 Station has been purchased by Jack and Lauretta Madsen.

The sale ends a 24-year ownership of the popular corner station by Tim and Michéle Arrants, who purchased the business in 1988, after leasing it for a number of years previously.

The Arrants plan to stay in the community for the next few years while their youngest son, Sammy, finishes his schooling.

The Arrants came to the community in 1980. After leasing and then owning the station for 10 years, the couple expanded it in 1998 into the complex seen today, featuring a mini-mart, car wash, lube center, mechanical department and tow trucks.

Tim said that the community was known to him since his family vacationed and camped in the area annually from the time he was a small child.

The Madsens own two other gas station-mini marts in the coulee area — one in Coulee Dam and the other the Hi-Co station, now called Jack’s Spring Canyon. Madsen and his wife purchased both stations July 25, 2011.

They have been negotiating to purchase the Four Corners property for several months; the sale went through June 29.

Madsen said that both Tim and Michéle have agreed to stay on for four weeks to assure a smooth transition.

“We plan to retain all of our new employees and continue all the services now offered at the station,” Madsen said Tuesday.

He said decisions are now being made on the “branding” of the stations. All three will be different and operate independently with gas prices probably different at each station.

Asked if owning all three independent stations in the area would create a monopoly, he replied, “With all three stations operating independently it should provide options for our customers, and of course people will have the same options they have always had.”

The Madsens came to the area just over a year ago from the Wenatchee area. Madsen had a 35-year career in national sales and marketing of consumer goods.

“We appreciate the way we have been welcomed into the community this past year,” Madsen said. “Our interest in purchasing the Four Corners complex was to guarantee that it be locally owned going into the future.”