“This isn’t the middle of winter – in the winter you’re going to have more problems. They used Swift River to make arrangements, and stayed inside to wait four or five hours for a tow truck or family to come help. In the last 10 days, the Johnsons have dealt with five breakdowns. “We’re just going to board it up and walk away. “But can we convince someone to invest $2 million in a little spot in the middle of nowhere under current times – I don’t think so,” said Johnson. The only way to save the business would be to level the buildings, put in a new septic system, and then rebuild – a project that would cost several million dollars, she said. “But now, there’s nothing to sell, no value here at all – we lost everything.” “If we’d had one or two more years, before the problems with the Health Department, we’d have been OK, and we’d not be having this conversation at all,” said Johnson. The Johnsons were about to pay off a 15-year mortgage, and had funding lined up to rebuild, when Health issued the shutdown order. “And we loved it – it was a very successful business, until the Health Department decided we no longer complied.” “We wanted to get out of the city and living in the North was the lifestyle we really wanted,” she said. Johnson moved north from Edmonton, and her brother came from Saskatoon, to open the lodge in 1993. “But we’ve gone backwards for five years trying to find some way to stay here and we should never have done that because we’ve exhausted any funds we had available to us – we just went too long.” “If we had known the land application would be denied if we’d known we couldn’t get financing we’d have closed our doors probably that first year they closed us down. “Plus they’ve taken away the revenue from our hotel and restaurant for almost five years, so how do you start saving money for improvements when you’re losing money everyday? “The government just imposed restrictions that were impossible for us to comply with,” said Johnson. 5 hectares of land – not enough to accommodate the new system unless they tore down the lodge.Ī land application, to allow part of the septic system to be installed on Crown land, was denied. The lodge needed a new septic system and was barred from offering food or lodging until it’s old tanks were replaced and moved away from its well.īut the Johnsons only owned. More than four years ago, the Health Department shut down Swift River’s motel rooms and restaurant. “There is no chance of us ever complying with the government so we have no choice but to close our doors.” “We’re broke we’re done we’re out of time and out of money,” said lodge co-owner Sharon Johnson on Monday. After more than 16 years serving Alaska Highway travellers around the clock, Swift River Lodge is boarding up its windows and padlocking the door.
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