Derek Neary
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Dec 11/98) - Keyna Norwegian, owner of the Keybrand Arcade in Fort Simpson, told village council Monday evening that the community's new youth drop-in centre will force her out of business.

Norwegian, who established the arcade in July, said the yet-to-open drop-in centre's foosball table, air hockey and ping-pong table will lure away her clientele. The facility will be free and something new, making it hard for her to compete, she contended.

"I really believe this place is going to interfere with my business," she said. "It's tough to have a business in this town and make ends meet."

She explained that she doesn't want to be made out as the "bad guy," but she has taken on a $10,000 business loan and, if the arcade doesn't remain profitable, she'll have to close the doors and assume the losses.

Mayor Norm Prevost told Norwegian that the drop-in centre was proposed close to two years ago and wasn't a recent development.

"When we started doing this there was no place for the kids to go, your place or others," he said.

Norwegian still wasn't impressed.

"You're now going to tell me I'm (expletive) out of luck and you're not going to do anything?" she asked resentfully.

Coun. Ron McCagg noted that arcades have come and gone in Fort Simpson and they tend to be a "seasonal venture." Regardless, the youth drop-in centre was not intended to damage her business, but rather to just give the kids a place to go, he said.

As it stands, the two facilities have only the foosball table in common. Scott McAdam, the village's recreation director, told Norwegian the drop-in centre has no plans to obtain a pool table -- the arcade already has two. Instead, the youth centre will look into getting a big- screen television or something else of interest to youth, he added.

The youth drop-in centre will, most likely, appeal to younger kids, not the teenagers who make up the bulk of Norwegian's clientele, according to McAdam. Besides, some parents prefer that their children not be hanging out in an arcade, he said.

Before the drop-in centre, located upstairs at the recreation complex, becomes operational, a youth committee is to be put in place to have a direct say in how the facility is run.

Prevost said he'd like to try to work together with Norwegian and told her that older kids would probably prefer her establishment anyway.

"It's a different atmosphere at your place than it is coming over here to the rec centre," he said.

Norwegian didn't leave the meeting feeling any better.

"Well, thanks for nothing," she said. "I'll probably be closing my doors soon."