By Oli Herrera

MOTEL BATTLE

City councilor encourages residents to forward complaints over Old Frankfurt Motel

May 14, 2021 | 4:54 PM

PRINCE GEORGE–There’s a battle in the Hart over the Old Frankfurt motel after over 2,000 people signed a petition to shut it down. Now, city councilor Brian Skakun is encouraging residents to call the city with their complaints in an effort to shut the place down.

The old Frankfurt motel–now called the 1618 Inn — has been an issue in the Hart for years. Skakun says that the people over in the Hart have had to deal with these problems long enough.

“I totally empathize with the people over in the Hart they shouldn’t have to put up with it,” said Skakun.

Skakun says that he just wants the place to be cleaned up. One of the methods he suggested was enforcing a nuisance by-law which would charge the landlords a fee that’s based on the amount of times emergency services would respond to calls at the motel. It’s a by-law that he helped enact years ago.

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“That Bylaw was passed years ago as an educational thing to motivate them and last case scenario is to pull their license and they’d have to shut down. But the 1800 people who put their name to the petition, they want some action”

The City of Prince George says there have been only 12 formal complaints filed to by-law services this year both by RCMP and Residents.

“City Bylaw Services was engaged in a property maintenance investigation with the Frankfurt Inn last summer and fall. The hotel was cooperative and made several improvements to the appearance of the property in order to comply with City bylaws. Earlier this year, the focus of Bylaw’s investigations shifted to a nuisance and abatement process as a result of complaints from the RCMP and residents who live nearby. These complaints stemmed from a perceived increase in criminal behavior associated with the hotel. City Bylaw is continuing its investigation.” statement from City Bylaw Services

The city says there’s been an open case for the motel since last summer, but they emphasize that the owners have been cooperating and showing improvements to the area.

The landlords say the only tenants in the motel now are those who were low income or struggle with a disability or health issue.

One of those tenants is Anne Margeret Alec. She suffers from lung cancer and says she was previously homeless until the owners took her in.

“We really need places to go, it’s not much but it’s warm and if you could come out and feel how it is 5 o’clock in the morning freezing it’s not fun and no where to shower, no where to cook your food.” said Alec.

Skakun says he will make sure if the place does shut down, people will not be left out on the street.

“We’ll work with the province, it’s like if there’s a fire or other things going on, emergency services step in., they’ll help find places for people to live.” said Skakun.

For now, the 1618 Inn still stands and the owners say they’ll keep up with improvements.

Alec says she hopes the tenants of the 1618 Inn and the Hart community can come to a compromise.

“I wanna apologize to Hart highway residents, I dont think that the landlord knew this was gonna happen and i don’t think that the landlord knew this was gonna happen. I think there’s a way we can solve this.” said Alec.