Highway to run over family business

A family living east of Thunder Bay is learning the price of progress.

The twinning of the highway to Nipigon is forcing them to abandon a business that's more than half a century old.

Ken Grann said his parents bought the storeand the garageat Pass Lake Corner on Highway 11/17 in 1958.

In the late 1980s, the Ministry of Transportation told his father a new highway would run right through the property.

"But they said it would be so far down the road that there's no possibility of it ever affecting us," he said. "And here we are today."

The store--now operated by new owners--will close next month.

'No idea where I'm going'

Grann said he is keeping the garage and gas station open until the ministry tells him it's time to shut down. His customers keep asking if he'll set up shop somewhere else.

"I have no idea where I'm going," he said.

"Like there's no place in this area that is zoned commercial that has a building on it that we could move into."

Customers are losing more than their local mechanic, convenience store and LCBO outlet.

Grann's wife, Cindy, said people crowd around the coffee counter every Saturday.

"This is where you find out what's going on in the community," she said.

Cindy worries about the customers, but she's also thinking about Ken.

"It's my husband that's going to have the hardest time."