Sign on door to Firehouse Subs says certificate of registration with Department of Revenue has expired

QUINCY — The door to Firehouse Subs, 3720 Broadway, has been locked since Monday, and an orange sign taped to the inside of the door said the restaurant’s certificate of registration with the Illinois Department of Revenue had expired.

“Due to taxpayer confidentiality provisions in the tax laws, the Illinois Department of Revenue cannot divulge particulars regarding the compliance of a business, but in general, to be open and operate legally, the business must be in full compliance or have a department-approved payment plan,” Maura Kownacki, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Revenue, said in a statement emailed to Muddy River News.

When the local phone number for the restaurant was called, a recorded message said, “The number you are trying to reach is out of service.”

The restaurant opened in May 2019. Owner Larry Webb also owns Firehouse Subs restaurants in St. Charles, Mo., and Springfield. The property where Firehouse Subs is located is owned by Quincy King Development out of Kansas City.

A call to reach Webb at W&W FireLane Developments, a limited liability company in St. Charles that he owns, was unsuccessful. A call to the media relations department at the franchise’s headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla., was not returned.

At the bottom of the orange sign was the sentence, “Persons who engage in the business of selling tangible personal property at retail after their certificate of registration has expired are guilty of a class A misdemeanor and will be subject to criminal prosecution and penalty.”

Webb is originally from Paynesville, Mo., a tiny village in Pike County, Mo. After graduating from Clopton High School, Webb attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., and was later selected for the ROTC program in 1978. He later was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina as a military police officer, then sent to the U.S. Army Europe headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany.

He later was assigned to bases in Dayton, Ohio, and St. Louis, then worked for Bass Pro Shops in St. Charles before opening his own restaurant.

A March 2024 story by Franchise Times says Firehouse Subs has more than 1,200 locations in the United States. The franchise was founded in 1994 by two firefighters from Jacksonville, Fla. A portion of every purchase goes to the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, which provides funding and equipment to first responders.