EVANSTON, IL - Owners of an Evanston convenience store are threatening to sue the city over its refusal to extend its operating hours, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Citing a large number of calls to police emanating from the store, an Evanston planning committee had refused to modify the hours of the Marathon gas station that brothers Hafiz and Nasir Yaqoob own. While its pumps are allowed to operate 24 hours a day, the city has said that the store can open only from 7 :00 am to 7:00 pm weekdays, 7:00 am to 4:00 pm Saturday, and that it must close Sundays. The brothers are seeking the same operating hours for the store as for its gas station.

"What we??re asking for today is nothing short of fairness and equality," said Bernard Citron, attorneys for the Yaqoobs. "There is no rational basis to not allow this convenience store to be open on Sundays. There is no rational basis to not allow a convenience store to be open past 4:00 on Saturdays."

As a compromise, the committee has offered for the store to remain open 7 :00 am to 7:00 pm daily, including a review of the station's operations in three months, at which time it could assess extending the hours further.

"Let us all talk reality here," Citron said. "Those hours are going to do nothing. We are going to close the store, and then we??re going to file suit. The compromise does us no good. A compromise that doesn??t keep us open isn??t a compromise."

According to Evanston police, there have been 31 incident reports at the Marathon station in the last 3.5 years, including acts of aggressive panhandling, assault, battery and theft. Earlier this year, gunshot was reportedly fired after a verbal dispute at the pumps.

Police maintain that the limited operating hours ensure that the police do not become "property managers."

"We need civility on Howard Street (the neighborhood where the station is located), and if it kills me, we??re going to get civility on Howard Street," said 8th Ward Ald. Ann Rainey. "And this station has done nothing to help with that vision."

The brothers maintain that they need the extended hours to remain competitive with the five surrounding convenience stores, all of which remain open 24 hours.

"If these hours are not lifted, the summer is where we make most of our money at the (convenience store)," Nasir Yaqoob said. "I am hurting financially. I am behind on my mortgage because of this."