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P.A. Humpty’s owners want the city to cut them a break

Feb 8, 2016 | 10:05 PM

Last summer’s Second Ave W. construction wasn’t just an inconvenience for motorists, owners of Prince Albert’s Humpty’s restaurant said it nearly cost them their livelihood.

The restaurant business is all about convenience said owner Robert Dunn but construction made it nearly impossible for patrons to navigate their way into the Humpty’s parking lot. The complicated detour resulted in a decrease in sales so significant it will take Dunn and co-owner and wife Lisa, up to two years to recover. The pair asked city council during an executive committee meeting yesterday, Feb. 8, to reduce their 2016 taxes by 33 per cent to help offset the past summer’s financial burden.

“To make it a little more understandable to how this affects us, to be honest with you this year could have killed me,” Dunn said. “From June until October I lost $160,000 worth of sales.”

Dunn said the Second Ave. construction lasted four months. The remaining eight couldn’t make up the losses from the summer.

“My business has to make $100,000 a month a break-even; to pay my staff, to pay taxes, to pay everything. My June sales were down $84,000, July was $90,000…we haven’t recovered,” Dunn said.

Coun. Ted Zurakowski said he worried an exception in the Dunn’s case might open the flood gates to any number of businesses affected by the construction.

“How do we respond to other businesses that will come to us and say ‘look, you’ve undertook significant roadwork both at the street level and underneath the street for a significant period of time – I’d like to be compensated,’” Zurakowski said.

As a patron of Humpty’s, Mayor Greg Dionne said he understood how the Dunns’ business suffered and would support a recommendation to decrease their 2016 taxes.

“They don’t have to convince me how much they lost; I’ve seen it. I’m a customer of Humpty’s and I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it go from three-quarters full, to sit wherever I want, to coming in and this whole section is closed,” Dionne said.

The matter was referred to city staff to write a formal report. The report will be brought forward then voted on during a future council meeting.

 

dreynolds@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @danitska